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Barzini, Luigi.
The Europeans
In the 1980s this eminent Italian scholar-journalist called for an examination of European culture and history and of the nations that must be the base of a unified Europe with one will, one voice and a unified foreign policy.
Cohen, Eliot A.
Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime
The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been complicated, especially in times of war. Cohen examines four great democratic war political leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill and David Ben-Gurion, and how they directed their military commanders.
Crowley, Roger.
Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World.
In the 16th Century the West was involved in a "clash of civilizations" with Islam under the Ottoman Turks. The key was the control of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Gay, Peter.
The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. 2 vols. Norton, 1995 [1966-1969].
The Enlightenment was a decisive moment in the development of the trans-Atlantic world in the 18th Century. Gay describes the philosophes' program and their views of society. His masterful appraisal provides insights into the Enlightenment's critical method and its humane and libertarian vision. The first volume was awarded the National Book Award in 1967.
Howard, Michael.
War in European History.
Wars have often determined the character of European society, and society in exchange has determined the character of wars. Howard surveys a thousand years of history and draws a broad outline of developments, which will delight the general reader.
Luttwak, Edward N.
The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third
Luttwak asks "How did the Romans defend the frontier?" His answer has stirred controversy, but also provoked valuable thinking about how imperial powers can meet their strategic challenges.
Mortenson, Greg, and David Oliver Relin.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Schools -- One School at a Time
Drawing upon Mortenson's experiences in Pakistan, the authors show development can really help the people who need it most. They argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls.
Sheehan, James J.
Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe
Sheehan charts perhaps the most radical shift in Europe's history: its transformation from wartorn battlefield to peaceful, prosperous society. For centuries, war was Europe's defining narrative, affecting every aspect of life. After World War II Europe began to re-imagine statehood, rejecting ballooning defense budgets in favor of material well-being, social stability and economic growth. Sheehan reveals how and why this happened, and what it means for America and the rest of the world.
Taylor, A. J. P.
The Struggle For Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918.
The revolutions of 1848 heralded an era of unprecedented nationalism, which culminated in the collapse of the Habsburg, Romanov and Hohenzollern dynasties by 1918. In this classic study in diplomatic history, Taylor shows how the changing balance of power determined the course of European history.
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Kagan, Robert.
Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order
Europe, Kagan argues, has moved beyond power into a self-contained world of laws, rules, and negotiation, while America operates in a "Hobbesian" world where rules and laws are unreliable and military force is often necessary. Tracing how this state of affairs came into being over the past fifty years and fearlessly exploring its ramifications for the future, Kagan reveals the shape of the new transatlantic relationship.
Lederer, William J., and Eugene Burdick.
The Ugly American
A searing political exposé, published as a novel, of how America was losing the struggle against communism in the Third World due to a lack of cultural sensitivities and language skills. One of the heroes (Col. "Hillandale") was modeled on the real-life Air Force counterinsurgency expert, Lt. Gen. Edward Lansdale.
Reid, T. R.
The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy
An experienced journalist reports on a new global challenger and contrasts it with the United States. Americans, he claims, have largely ignored this revolution.
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Davies, Norman.
No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945
A leading historian re-examines World War II and its outcome. Davies asks readers to reconsider what they know about World War II and how received wisdom might be wrong. The answers and their implications will surprise even those who consider themselves experts on the subject.
Murray, Williamson, and Allan R. Millett.
A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War
Murray and Millett analyze the operations and tactics that defined the conduct of the war in both the European and Pacific Theaters. Moving between war room and battlefield, we see how strategies were crafted and revised, and how the multitudes of combat troops struggled to discharge their orders. The authors present incisive portraits of military leaders on all sides of the struggle, demonstrating the ambiguities they faced, the opportunities they took and those they missed. A War to Be Won is the culmination of decades of research by two of America's premier military historians.
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Bush, George H. W., and Brent Scowcroft.
A World Transformed
Former President Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, tell the story of the extraordinary series of international events that took place during the end of the Cold War. They use behind-the-scenes accounts of critical meetings in the White House and of summit conferences and insights on the importance of personal relationships in diplomacy. Bush and Scowcroft candidly recount how the major players sometimes disagreed over issues and analyze what mistakes were made.
Cooper, Robert.
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century
Cooper shows that the greatest question facing post-modern states is how to deal with a world in which missiles and terrorists ignore borders and where alliances no longer guarantee security. He argues that when dealing with a hostile outside enemy, civilized countries need to revert to tougher methods from an earlier era: force, pre-emptive attacks and deception if we are to safeguard peaceful coexistence throughout the civilized world. He also advocates a doctrine of liberal imperialism that advocates that post-modern states have a right to intervene in the affairs of modern and pre-modern states if they pose a significant enough threat.
Gaddis, John Lewis.
The Cold War: A New History
The dean of Cold War historians his definitive account of the global confrontation that dominated the last half of the 20th Century. Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, Gaddis explains not just what happened but "why" from the months in 1945 when the United States and the Soviet Union went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in its drama, this book stands as a triumphant summation of the era that, more than any other, shaped our own.
Mills, Nicolaus.
Winning the Peace: The Marshall Plan and America's Coming of Age as a Superpower
Politicians frequently invoke the Marshall Plan in support of programs aimed at using American wealth to extend the nation's power and influence, solve intractable third-world economic problems and combat world hunger and disease. Do any of these impassioned advocates understand why the Marshall Plan succeeded where so many subsequent aid plans have not? Mills explores the Marshall Plan in all its dimensions to provide valuable lessons from the past about what America can and cannot do as a superpower.
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Elting, John R.
Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grand Armée
Napoleon used his Grand Army to dominate Europe for over a decade. Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more.
de Gaulle, Charles.The War Memoirs. 3 vol. Trans. from the French
In 1940 Brig. Gen. de Gaulle first commanded a tank brigade, then left the country to organize the Free French resistance. Four years later he led victorious French troops back into France alongside their British and American allies, insisted on a French zone in occupied Germany, and served as president of the provisional government.
Horne, Alistair.
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
The Algerian War brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture. Today it looks like a full-dress rehearsal for today's struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.
Schama, Simon.
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
The author devotes his considerable narrative and scholarly gifts to the French Revolution and to the transformation that permanently altered the face of Europe. Schama presents an ebullient country before the revolution, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty and technology. He argues that the Old Regime fell not because it was stagnant but because it was moving too fast. Unlike Marxists and new historians, Schama stresses the importance of individual events and people. He detects the emergence of a patriotic culture of citizenship in the decades preceding 1789 and explains how citizenship came to be a public expression of an idealized family.
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Churchill, Winston S.
The Second World War (6 vols)
Churchill's memoir-history is remarkable for its sweep and sense of personal involvement. It is universally acknowledged as a magnificent historical reconstruction and an enduring work of literature, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
Ferguson, Niall.
Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
Ferguson boldly recasts the British Empire as one of the world's greatest modernizing forces. In this important work of synthesis and revision, he argues that the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The spread of capitalism, the communications revolution, the notion of humanitarianism, and the institutions of parliamentary democracy – all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population and culture from the 17th Century until the mid-twentieth.
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Buruma, Ian.
Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance
A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular West. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that insulted the prophet Mohammed. The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.
Schama, Simon.
The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state, of how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies.
Schama, Simon.
Rembrandt's Eyes
This biography charts the troubled painter's rivalry with the worldly, successful Peter Paul Rubens. It is also an in-depth portrait of 17th Century Holland, politically and socially
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Garton, Ash Timothy.
The File: A Personal History
Garton Ash visited East Germany frequently as a journalist during the Cold War. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he returned and gained access to his Stasi (secret police) file. In this memoir he describes what it was like to rediscover his younger self through the eyes of the Stasi, and then to go on to confront those who actually informed against him to the secret police. Moving from document to remembrance, from the offices of British intelligence to the living rooms of retired Stasi officers, he presents a story that is gripping, disquieting and morally provocative.
Mazower, Mark.
Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe
Mazower focuses on the ambitions and foibles of the Nazi leaders, who believed that all of Europe could be made to serve German interests. As he shows, almost nothing about the occupation had been planned beforehand. The Nazis improvised as their armies raced through Poland, the Soviet Union and the Low Countries, and Nazi generals and old-line bureaucrats fought among themselves for power and spoils.
Ozment, Steven.
A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People
The Romans used the word "German" as early as the 1st Century BC to describe tribes in the eastern Rhine valley. Nearly two thousand years later, the richness and complexity of German history have faded beneath the long shadow of the country's darkest hour in World War II. Ozment gives us the fullest portrait possible of the German people from antiquity to the present, holding a mirror up to an entire civilization – one that has been alternately Western Europe's most successful and most perilous.
Stern, Fritz.
Five Germanies I Have Known
Born in the Weimar Republic, exposed to five years of National Socialism, before being forced into exile in 1938 to America, Stern became a world-renowned historian whose work opened new perspectives on the German past as it slid into catastrophe and later regained its rightful place in the community of nations. He brings to life the five Germanies he has experienced: Weimar, the Third Reich, postwar West and East Germany, and the unified country after 1990.
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Ginsborg, Paul.
Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State, 1980-2001.
Ginsborg, a professor of contemporary history in Florence, paints a brilliant portrait of contemporary Italian society and politics, a fascinating and definitive account of how Italy has coped or failed to cope as it moves from one century to the next.
Saviano, Robert.
Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System
A groundbreaking bestseller in Italy, this is a gripping account of the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network with a large international reach and stakes in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs and toxic-waste disposal. Known by insiders as "the System," the Camorra affects cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast. Gomorrah is a bold and important work of investigative writing that holds global significance, one heroic young man's impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization.
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Hooper, John.
The New Spaniards
Modern-day Spain is changing at bewildering speed. In less than half a century, a predominantly rural society has been transformed into a mainly urban one. A dictatorship has become a democracy. Hooper's portrayal explores the causes behind these changes, from crime to education, gambling to changing sexual mores, creating the essential guide to understanding 21st Century Spain: a land of paradox, progress, and social change.
Menocal, Maria Rosa.
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
A rich and thriving culture where literature, science and religious tolerance flourished for 700 years is the subject of this enthralling history of medieval Spain. Living side by side in the Andalusian kingdoms, the "peoples of the book" produced statesmen, poets and philosophers who influenced the rest of Europe in dramatic ways. Menocal explores this lost history whose legacy and lessons have a powerful resonance in today's world.
Preston, Paul.
The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge
Preston, the world's foremost historian of Spain, has written the definitive work on the Spanish Civil War. Tracking the emergence of Francisco Franco's brutal (and, ultimately, extraordinarily durable) fascist dictatorship, he assesses the ways in which the war presaged World War II..
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Davies, Norman.
Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present
Davies provides a key to understanding modern Poland in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term themes and traditions which have influenced present attitudes.
Havel, Václav.
To the Castle and Back
A dissident playwright-turned-statesman, Havel led central Europe out of communism and into the twenty-first century before stepping down as Czech president in 2003. With this book, Havel reflects upon his 14 years at Prague Castle, combining retrospective commentary with excerpts from memos written to his staff while in office.
Milosz, Czeslaw.
The Captive Mind
Milosz was a Polish writer and poet who defected in 1951. His book, published abroad in 1953, points out that it is too easy to lose our intellectual independence and become slaves to a set of ideas. It examines the moral and intellectual conflicts faced by men and women living under totalitarianism of the left or right. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1980, the same year Polish workers organized the trade union "Solidarity."
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Clark, Wesley K.
Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat
Clark recounts his experience as SACEUR leading NATO's forces to a hard-fought and ultimately successful victory in Kosovo in 1999. The problems posed and overcome in the war in Kosovo – how to fight an air war against unconventional forces in rough terrain and how to coordinate U.S. objectives with those of other nations – are the problems that America faces in today's world.
Glenny, Misha.
The Balkans, 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers
Glenny provides essential background to recent events in this war-torn area. He offers profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence and vividly explains the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.
Kaplan, Robert D.
Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History
Kaplan completed this enthralling political travelogue just as communism in Eastern Europe was being overthrown and Yugoslavia was disintegrating into violent chaos. From the assassination that set off World War I to the ethnic warfare that swept Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s, the Balkans have been the crucible of the 20th Century – the place where terrorism and genocide were first practiced as tools of policy.
O,'Hanlon Michael E., and Ivo H. Daalder.
Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo
After eleven weeks of bombing in the spring of 1999, the United States and NATO ultimately won the war in Kosovo. Serbian troops were forced to withdraw, enabling an international military and political presence to take charge in the region. But was this war inevitable or was it the product of failed western diplomacy prior to the conflict? And once it became necessary to use force, did NATO adopt a sound strategy to achieve its aims of stabilizing Kosovo?
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Applebaum, Ann.
Gulag: A History.
Applebaum undertakes a fully documented history of the Soviet camp system from its origins in the Russian Revolution to its collapse in the era of glasnost. Her book, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, is an epic feat of investigation and moral reckoning that places the Gulag where it belongs: at the center of our understanding of the troubled history of the 20th Century.
Babchenko, Arkady.
One Soldier's War
A searing portrait of the Russian experiences in Chechnya as told through the eyes of a conscripted soldier. Winner of multiple prizes, this story shows the brutality of counter-insurgency operations gone very, very bad; as well as providing a harsh portrait of the Russian military culture in the 1990s. Brilliant, honest, and beautifully written, this is a must read for anyone thinking through savage war in a harsh place, or seeking to understand the Russian need for military reform.
Bellamy, Chris.
Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
The battle on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945 was arguably the single most decisive factor of World War II, fixing the course of world history over the next half century. Drawing on sources newly available since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, Bellamy presents the first full account of this deadly conflict.
Brown, Archie.
The Rise and Fall of Communism
The inexorable rise of Communism was the most momentous political phenomenon of the first half of the 20th Century. Its demise in Europe and its decline elsewhere have produced the most profound political changes of the last few decades. Brown provides a comprehensive history as well as an original and highly readable analysis of an ideology that has shaped the world and still rules over a fifth of humanity.
Khalid, Adeeb.
Islam After Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia
Khalid combines insights from the study of both Islam and Soviet history in this sophisticated analysis of the ways that Muslim societies in Central Asia were transformed by the lengthy Soviet presence in the region.
King, Charles.
The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus
This first general history of the Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to the rise of new countries after the Soviet collapse, reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries and adventurers have contributed to the fascinating history of this borderland, providing an indispensable guide to the complicated histories, politics and cultures of this intriguing frontier.
Kotkin, Stephen.
Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000
Kotkin shows that the Soviet collapse resulted not from military competition but, ironically, from the dynamism of Communist ideology, the long-held dream for "socialism with a human face." He vividly demonstrates the overriding importance of history, individual ambition, geopolitics and institutions, and deftly draws out contemporary Russia's contradictory predicament.
Lucas, Edward.
The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West
Lucas offers a harrowing portrait of Russia from 1999 to today as well as a sobering political assessment of what the new cold war will mean for the world. A long-time journalist for The Economist, Lucas brilliantly anticipates what is in store for the new Russia and what the world should be doing.
Merridale, Catherine.
Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army
Merridale reveals the singular mixture of courage, patriotism, anger and fear that made it possible for these underfed, badly led troops to defeat the Nazi Army. Of the thirty million who fought, eight million died. The men and women of the Red Army, a ragtag mass of soldiers confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it. Merridale tells how the ordinary Russian soldiers died, but also describes how they lived, how they saw the world and why they fought.
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Finkel, Caroline.
Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire
In this magisterial work, Finkel lucidly recounts the epic story of the Ottoman Empire from its origins in the 13th Century through its destruction on the battlefields of World War I.
Kinzer, Stephen.
Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds
In the first edition of this widely praised book, Kinzer claimed that Turkey was the country to watch. It is poised between Europe and Asia, between the glories of its Ottoman past and its hopes for a democratic future, between the dominance of its army and the needs of its civilian citizens, between its secular expectations and its Muslim traditions. In this revised edition, he adds much important new information on the many exciting transformations in Turkey's government and politics, and also shows how recent developments in both American and European policies have affected this unique and perplexing nation.
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Geraghty, Col. Timothy J. .
Peacekeepers at War: Beirut 1983 – The Marine Commander Tells His Story
On October 23, 1983, nearly simultaneous suicide truck bombings killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers in their barracks at the Beirut International Airport (BIA) and 58 French paratroopers at their headquarters two miles north of BIA. In this long-awaited book, the Marine Corps commander of the U.S. Multi-National Peacekeeping Force that was destroyed by terrorists in Lebanon tells his story for the first time. Together, these suicide bombings comprised the largest nonnuclear explosion ever recorded and are now recognized as a seminal event leading to the current war on terrorism. Such acts of war revealed a new, highly effective tactic, which complemented the terrorist's strategic goals—the withdrawal of the peacekeepers and Western influence from Lebanon and a change in U.S. policy.
Morris, Benny.
1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War
Morris, an Israeli historian, has written a history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict that is groundbreaking, objective and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. He probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab side – where the archives are still closed – is illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials.
Oren, Michael B.
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
Oren has written a thorough analysis of the events that combusted to produce a maelstrom in the Middle East. He traces the origins of the Six-Day War to several causes that were in no way resolved by the conflict, and underlines one of its effects – the Israeli conquest of the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank – that remains a subject of controversy today.
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Aksyonov, Vasily.
Generations of Winter. Trans. from the Russian by John Glad and Christopher Morris. Written in the great tradition of epic Russian fiction, this is a magnificent saga that captures one of the most fascinating chapters in modern history – the Soviet Union between 1925 and 1945. Breathtaking in its scope, masterful in its command of historical events and its understanding of timeless human truths, the novel has been likened to a 20th Century War and Peace.
de, Balzac Honoré.
La Comédie humaine
Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and plays depicted French society between the Restoration and the July Monarchy (1815-1848). Often compared to Charles Dickens, Balzac painted a realistic, panoramic portrait of all aspects of French society.
Boyd, William.
The New Confessions
Boyd has created a fictional memoir of a Scotsman who becomes obsessed with making a 20th Century film version of the most famous 18th Century memoir, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions. The novel describes a complicated life lived between Europe and America from World War I through Weimar Germany to Hollywood in the 1940s.
Camus, Albert.
The Stranger Trans. from the French by Matthew Ward
In this novel by one of the most influential French authors of the 20th Century, Camus uses the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach to explore what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor.
The Brothers Karamazov Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
One of the greatest Russian novels tells the story of intellectual Ivan, sensual Dmitri and idealistic Alyosha Karamazov who collide in the wake of their despicable father's brutal murder. Dostoevsky poured in all of his deepest concerns: the origin of evil, the nature of freedom, the craving for meaning and, most importantly, whether God exists.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor.
Crime and Punishment Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Dostoyevsky's classic novel focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of an impoverished St. Petersburg ex-student who kills a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time ridding the world of an evil, worthless parasite.
Fraser MacDonald, George.
Flashman
Historical fiction often provides the best illumination of a place or a time, and in this first volume of the Flashman series, Fraser - who died last year - provides a vivid and instructive view of the first Anglo-Afghan war. Here we see the disastrous retreat from Kabul in 1842 which cost the British over 15,000 lives in essentially a month's time, led by the hapless General Elphinstone. It is a tale which provides a fascinating insider's view of the British experience in the 19th century, and well worth the time of those who are studying that troubled nation today. Old ghosts rattle through Afghanistan, and this novel shows us several in depth and detail.
von, Goethe Johann Wolfgang.
Faust, Parts I and II Trans. from the German by David Constantine.
Goethe's famous play, one of the greatest works of German literature, turned the legendary German alchemist into one of the central myths of the Western world. Faust is an audacious man who boldly wagers with the devil: unlimited power on earth in exchange for his immortal soul. An unforgettable parable of science and power, religion and morality.
Gogol, Nikolay.
Dead Souls Trans. from the Russian by Robert A. Maguire
A comic epic of greed and gluttony that is admired not only for its colorful cast of characters and devastating satire, but also for its sense of moral fervor. Although Gogol spends much of the novel exposing the evils of the Russian gentry through absurd and hilarious satire, he also expresses a passionate love for his country.
Grass, Günter.
The Tin Drum. Trans. from the German by Ralph Manheim. Vintage, 1990 [1959].
Grass begins his story in Danzig, today's Gdansk in Poland, but then a contested city on the Polish- German border. The protagonist is a twisted child with a scream that can shatter glass and a drum rather than a shadow. First published in 1959, the novel's depiction of the Nazi era created a furor in Germany. Grass uses savage comedy and magical realism to capture not only the madness of war, but also the black cancer at the heart of humanity that allows such degradations to occur. Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999.
Ha,šek Jaroslav.
The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War. Trans. from the Czech by Cecil Parrott. Penguin, 1990 [1923].
An rambling satire depicting the adventures of a hapless soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. He is dismissed for incompetence, only to be pressed into service by the Russians (where he is captured by his own troops). The author, a mischief-maker, bohemian and drunk, demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character and the preposterous nature of war.
Kafka, Franz.
The Castle. Trans. from the German by J. A. Underwood. Penguin, 2000 [1926].
In this classic of modern literature, a protagonist known only as K. struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village where he wants to work as a land surveyor. The novel is about alienation, bureaucracy, and the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system.
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Lorca, Federico Garcia.
The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca.
Although the life of Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) was tragically brief, the Spanish poet and dramatist created an enduring body of work that remains internationally important. This selection of 55 poems represents some of his finest work. The poems are imbued with Andalusian folklore, rich in metaphor and spiritually complex.
Mantel, Hilary.
Wolf-Hall.
Winner of the 2009 Booker Prize for Literature, this novel retells the familiar story of Henry VIII, Thomas Moore, and Thomas Cromwell. As everyone remembers, when Henry decided to create the new Church of England in his pursuit of a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, he required all the nobles of his court to swear allegiance to the new order. Moore refused to do so, despite being imprisoned in the Tower of London for many months. Cromwell, the new Chancellor and Henry's leading administrator, tried unsuccessfully to convince Moore to change his mind. The dynamic play of the three is beautifully illuminated in this story, which places Cromwell in the sympathetic center of the story as opposed to the normal approach of placing Moore there. In the end, it is still a story of telling truth to power and being prepared for the consequences, a timeless lesson for our times.
McEwan, Ian.
The Innocent
This historical novel is set in Cold War Berlin at the time of "Operation Gold" in 1955-56, the attempt by the British MI6 and the American CIA to tunnel into the Soviet sector and infiltrate Soviet communication systems. McEwan also focuses on broader issues of the early Cold War and the opposed political philosophies of communism and capitalism.
Pamuk, Orhan.
Snow. Trans. from the Turkish by Maureen Freely
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, tells a story that encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey and successfully combines humor, social commentary, mysticism, and a deep sympathy with its characters.
Pasternak, Boris.
Doctor Zhivago. Translated from the Russian by Max Hayward and Manya Harari.
Pasternak had the manuscript of this novel of revolution and civil war smuggled out of the country for publication. The book not only brings the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet era to life, it tells the stories of some of the most memorable characters to be found in all of literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.
Petterson, Per.
Out Stealing Horses. Trans. from the Norwegian by Anne Born.
In 1948 when he is fifteen Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon's sudden breakdown. The tragedy that lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys' families to gradually fall apart. As a 67-year-old man, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories flooding back and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.
Remarque, Erich Maria.
All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. from the German by Brian Murdoch.
Written after World War I by a German combat veteran of the trenches, this book shows the war's horrors and the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. It persuaded many Europeans in the 1930s and later that all wars were futile and immoral.
Saramago, José.
The Cave. Trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa.
Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marçal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartments, and offices to which Cipriano delivers his pots and jugs every month. On one such trip, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds, and Cipriano and Marta set to work-until the order is cancelled and the three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their apartment, Cipriano and Marçal investigate, and what they find transforms the family's life.
Schlink, Bernhard.
The Reader. Trans. from the German by Carol Brown Janeway.
This troubling book deals with the difficulties subsequent generations have in comprehending the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media.
Shteyngart, Gary.
Absurdistan
This novel follows its protagonist and narrator from St. Petersburg (or St. Leninsburg as he prefers to call it) to a fictional country in the Caucasus called "Absurdistan," where a multi-sided conflict is raging.
Solzhenitzyn, Aleksandr.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Trans. from the Russian by Ralph Parker.
From the icy blast of reveille through the sweet release of sleep, Ivan Denisovich endures. A common carpenter, he was one of millions imprisoned for years on baseless charges, sentenced to the waking nightmares of the Soviet work camps in Siberia. Even in the face of degrading hatred, where life is reduced to a bowl of gruel and a rare cigarette, hope and dignity prevailed. This powerful novel, published in 1963 after Stalin's death, is a scathing indictment of communist tyranny and an eloquent affirmation of the human spirit. Solzhenitzyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, but expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974.
Tolstoy, Leo.
War and Peace. Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
In this famous, and perhaps greatest, novel of all time, Tolstoy tells the story of five families struggling for survival during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812-13 and the slow awakening of the Russian nation. Tolstoy, a veteran of fighting in the Caucasus and the Crimea in the 1850s, brilliantly describes individuals and societies at war and seeks to demolish the "great man" theory of history.
History, Security & Military Lists
Books mentioned in this topic
The Cave (other topics)The Selected Poems (other topics)
Out Stealing Horses (other topics)
All Quiet on the Western Front (other topics)
Doctor Zhivago (other topics)
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