false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255686455m/5267151.jpg 825690 7 The last days of the British Raj. The end of empire. A love affair between Edwina Mountbatten, wife of the last British viceroy to India, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. The stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947 liberated 400 million people from the British Empire. With the loss of India, its greatest colony, a nation admitted it was no longer a superpower, and a king ceased to sign himself Rex Imperator. It was one of the defining moments of world history, but it had been brought about by a tiny group of people. Among them were Jawaharlal Nehru, the fiery Indian prime minister with radical plans for a socialist revolution; Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Muslim leader who would stop at nothing to establish the world’s first modern Islamic state; Mohandas Gandhi, the mystical figure who enthralled a nation; and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, the glamorous but unlikely couple who had been dispatched to get Britain out of India without delay. Within hours of the midnight chimes, the two new nations of India and Pakistan would descend into anarchy and terror. Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi and the Mountbattens struggled with public and private turmoil while their dreams of freedom and democracy turned to chaos, bloodshed, genocide and war. <i>Indian Summer</i> depicts the epic sweep of events that ripped apart the greatest empire the world has ever seen, and saw one million people killed and ten million dispossessed. It reveals the secrets of the most powerful players on the world stage: the Cold War conspiracies, the private deals, and the intense and clandestine love affair between the wife of the last viceroy and the first prime minister of free India. 844488 2 7 2007 Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire total:138|5:4|4:0|3:3|2:2|1:0| 138 536 303 49 4 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 19 03:51:21 -0800 2007 Mon Jun 09 03:40:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 01 13:55:31 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 15 09:50:30 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 15 08:59:15 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 09:08:25 -0800 2008
Dickie Mountbatten, Britain’s Dickie's savvy, glamorous wife, Edwina, ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jun 15 11:56:30 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 12:00:51 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 01 06:50:28 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 03:55:46 -0800 2009
This book's cover also says sensational things like 'end of an empire' and has a more than intriguing cover photo of Lady Mountbatten sh...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 18 09:04:03 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 09:46:37 -0700 2008
...more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 09:32:32 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 09:38:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 11 14:21:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 14:26:25 -0700 2009 My only complaint is my normal complaint about history...I want to delve in deeper...I want the innermost thoughts, the secret conversations, the gritty little details that never make it into the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 11:56:07 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 14:07:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 22 09:17:53 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 09 17:07:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 08:20:46 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 07:36:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 19 10:01:08 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 09:57:02 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 10:00:50 -0800 2009 Enjoying it so much I can't even skip a word. Its history but Alex Tunzelmann is a genius of an author. She has done such a wonderful job knitting the history into a novel. Its on Nehru, Gandhi and India - pre and post 1947. Very engaging and the l...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 08:26:28 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 08:26:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 22:34:11 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 01 14:14:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 09 06:18:17 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 15:53:26 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 06:18:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat May 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 15:44:51 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 19:08:46 -0700 2009
After World War II, Great Britain was in big trouble. The country was in debt and still suffering from the results of the war. Given their situation,...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 21 09:24:13 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 09:27:03 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 01 10:43:33 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 10:45:04 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 06 02:14:28 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 02:22:38 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Jan 04 20:14:28 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 09:33:58 -0800 2009
A decent book about India's transition to independence, but too centered on the great man/woman idea of history. The key players were certainly central in India's changes, but not the type of history that eithe...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5267151