HISTORY & WORLD WAR II

The kind of history that proposed big round answers to large historical questions or propounded Toynbee-like views of man's drift simply did not show in '55. Fascinating bits of Americana were almost daily occurrences, from The American Cowboy to The History of American Funeral Directing. The U.S. Civil War was seldom out of sight, though in small focus, and a huge project dealing with one of Christianity's most dramatic impulses got under way with the first volume of A History of the Crusades. As is usual now, some of the year's best history showed up in fiction, e.g., The Cornerstone, by Zoe Oldenbourg, a well-written, well-researched novel about 13th century France.

Cities in Revolt, by Carl Bridenbaugh, was a thoroughly researched reminder that Colonial America was not made up exclusively of farmers and frontiersmen. Professor Bridenbaugh is the acknowledged master of the history of Colonial cities, and in this book he fascinatingly established not only their importance as centers of civilization but as incubators of revolution.

A Military History of the Western World, by Major General J. F. C. Fuller, still has one volume to go, but the first two showed that Fuller is probably the best overall war historian now writing. No narrow-minded blood-and-guts man, he showed how politics and economics influenced wars and leaders in a notable survey that starts in the 5th century B.C. and moves to 1815.

The King's Peace, by C. V. Wedgwood, joined scholarship and good writing in what was probably the year's best book of history, a fine study of the four years (1637-41) that led to the English civil wars. As a result, Charles I seems less a villain than a fool.

The Day Lincoln Was Shot, by Jim Bishop, was no piece of formal scholarship, but a vivid though painstakingly researched picture of the tragic events of April 14,1865. Bishop's book had the impact of a sharp detective's report.

Soviet Espionage, by David J. Dallin, gave a country-by-country report on Russian espionage that will probably never get the circulation it deserves. The top authority in the field, Dallin impressively described the extent and methods of a network that is as ruthless as it is tireless.

Assignment to Catastrophe, by Major General Sir Edward Spears (Vol. II, The Fall of France), was one of the most vividly written memoirs of World War II, by Churchill's liaison officer with the French. The story of a single month in 1940, it described the apathy, indecisiveness or treachery of the Frenchmen who presided over their country's defeat.

The Call to Honour, by General Charles de Gaulle, was the testimony of the man who made the Free Fighting French a reality almost singlehandedly after the fall of France. Unfortunately, he still seemed to believe that France's real enemies were the U.S. and Great Britain, but his courage and his near mystical sense of destiny gave his book a unique quality.

Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, described the most decisive naval battle of World War II (one of the authors led the attack on Pearl Harbor). The story of a great U.S. victory seemed the more stirring because it came from the other side.

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