Inside Europe Today

by John Gunther

John Gunther was a globe-trotting journalist of the mid-1900's who wrote a number of excellent books focusing on politics and life in various parts of the world. He is best known for "Death Be Not Proud", the story of his son, who tragically died of a brain tumor at age 17. Gunther traveled extensively through Europe circa 1936, interviewing political leaders and assessing the climate all throughout. His analysis of Hitler, the possibilities for war, and the social turmoil working its way through almost all of Europe make for fascinating reading, knowing what is soon to come. Gunther provides us with a unique perspective on WWII, reporting up-close on tensions and issues that have been much forgotten over time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

John Gunther was one of the best known and most admired journalists of his day, and his series of "Inside" books, starting with Inside Europe in 1936, were immensely popular profiles of the major world powers. One critic noted that it was Gunther's special gift to "unite the best qualities of the newspaperman and the historian." It was a gift that readers responded to enthusiastically. The "Inside" books sold 3,500,000 copies over a period of thirty years.

While publicly a bon vivant and modest celebrity, Gunther in his private life suffered disappointment and tragedy. He and Frances Fineman, whom he married in 1927, had a daughter who died four months after her birth in 1929. The Gunthers divorced in 1944. In 1947, their beloved son Johnny died after a long, heartbreaking fight with brain cancer. Gunther wrote his classic memoir Death Be Not Proud, published in 1949, to commemorate the courage and spirit of this extraordinary boy. Gunther remarried in 1948, and he and his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, adopted a son.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gunther's only other sequel, Inside South America, would go into seemingly a lot more detail than the original Inside Latin America. Inside Europe Today in contrast seems to be even more brief than the original, but I suppose it can be forgiven if the original plan was just to make an article
for Reader's Digest.

So many changes happened between the Europe of the 30s and the Europe of the 60s. To have a world class journalist who lived through both,
sitting down and reflecting upon the differences provides a very valuable insight.

At the heart of Europe still lies Germany, and Gunther will begin there again, reflecting on the powerful liberal and pan-European sentiments of Adenauer, the ongoing recovery from the war both mentally and physically, and obviously the ongoing crisis over the division of the country and the resulting enclave in Berlin. The wall hadn't been built yet, and it's interesting to see Gunther at one point attempt to address the question of why the authorities haven't sealed the Berlin border yet.

The rest of Western Europe also continues to try and find itself in the new Cold War world. As leftovers from the pre-war era remain Spain and Portugal though Gunther seems to suspect that the days of those dictatorships are over.

In his coverage of Eastern Europe, Gunther emphasized the variety of independence and even civil liberties from the grasp of Soviet domination. The governments of the satellite states were staffed by genuine Communists who viewed themselves as leaders of independent nations even if propped up by Soviet arms. The impact of the 1956 Hungarian uprising also still seems to be very strong and sobering.

My favorite part of the book was Gunther's description of Khrushev's personality, his manner of communication, and his machinations around events like the U2 spy plane incident. He was definitely a memorable character.

As to prove the impact of a rapidly globalizing world, Gunther even gives substantial coverage to China and their dissenting opinions on the direction of Soviet ideology during this time.

Logically Europe is trying to integrate at this moment and Gunther describes the EEC, the Common Market, and Euratom: institutions that will form the embryo of the modern European Union. Even back then the explicit goal is to form a unified superstate, and after the success of the common market Gunther notes that one of the idealists' dreams includes a common currency.

In spite of the fall of Communism, this still feels like a very contemporary book, certainly much more than Inside Europe (1936). I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the post war Europe.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some guys have all the luck. John Gunther was on the spot in Europe in 1962 at that precise moment when the British Empire went into total eclipse, Charles De Gaulle enacted an exodus from the bleeding wound of Algeria, Nikita Khruschev had normalized relations with Europe, including the Pope, and West Germany emerged from the war the foremost economic power on the continent. All of this makes for fascinating reading of a civilization in decline. By the early Sixties Gunther was no longer the hot young kid journalist who wrote INSIDE EUROPE in 1935, becoming cicerone to the continent for Americans. Nevertheless, his views are trenchant and prophetic. England, which Gunther misleadingly calls "the most important country" is suffering from national malaise, a pessimism that prevents her people from regaining the initiative that once made Britain the key player on the continent. The royal family is loved but not revered, and young intellectuals like John Osborne mock it and the Church of England with bile. France is summed up in one man, Charles De Gaulle. No great action may be taken without the decision of this eccentric autocrat. West Germany is a sheaf or personalities, but Gunther is most impressed by West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt who tells him, "reunification is not impossible, history does not know never". Europe is not gripped by the anti-Soviet paranoia that pervades in America. The Defense Minister of Sweden drily notes that "Russia and Sweden have tangled before, and Sweden has not come out too badly". Italy is still a mess after Mussolini, with multiple governments coming and going every year, and Spain and Portugal are museum pieces led by geriatric fascist dictators. Gunther does glimpse at eastern Europe, but without on hand inspection, quite the opposite of his 1948 book, BEHIND THE CURTAIN. Still, his insights are valuable. Albania "is a kind of Communist outhouse", and Romania "a typical Soviet satrap" though the Romanians are chafing under the heel of Moscow. INSIDE EUROPE TODAY is a magnificent sketchbook of a continent caught between East and West, with declining relevance for its own future, not unlike the twenty first century.