From the author of Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution andRevolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire comes a powerful, revelatory book about the year that would signal the beginning of the Cold War, the end of the British Empire, and the beginning of the rivalry between the United States and the USSR. Victor Sebestyen reveals the events of 1946 by chronologically framing what was taking place in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with seminal decisions made by heads of state that would profoundly change the old order forever. Whether it was the July 22 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the July 25 Bikini Atoll underwater atomic bomb test, or the August 16 Great Calcutta Killings in India, 1946 was a year of seismic and dramatic events.
Sebestyen begins with the Moscow Foreign Ministers' Conference the week before Christmas 1945, when Stalin announced that the USSR would not withdraw its troops from Iran by March 1946, and ends with the morning of November 3, 1946, when Emperor Hirohito officially unveiled Japan's new constitution before the National Diet. The year 1946 would see the map of Eastern Europe redrawn, Chinese communists gaining decisive victories in their fight for power, and the birth of Israel.
Though Truman, Stalin, Churchill, MacArthur, Ben-Gurion, Hirohito, and Menachem Begin are part of the story, Sebestyen also writes about the enormous suffering and ongoing persecution of civilians in the aftermath of the war: the pillaging and rape; the ethnic cleansing of the German population from Czechoslovakia and Poland; the rise of a violent new anti-Semitism; the civil wars in China and Greece; the mass starvation in Japan, Eastern Europe, and Germany on a scale not seen since the Middle Ages; the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis and diphtheria; and such total desolation that schools, government, and transportation were nonexistent and currency was worthless.
Drawing on personal testimonies and new archival research, Sebestyen has written a vivid and compelling narrative that brilliantly evokes the beginning of the Cold War set against a devastated landscape of dystopian horrors.
(With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs.)
From the Hardcover edition.
Industry Reviews
"Mr. Sebestyen deserves praise for illuminating a low point in modern history." --The Economist
"[A] richly textured, eminently readable reminder of the vast problems faced by the leaders of the post-war world and the often fumbling, incompetent, cynical--or occasionally visionary--solutions they struggled to provide." --Jewish Chronicle "Sebestyen is a witty storyteller with a wide-ranging intellect, and his fast-paced yet expansive style will appeal even to readers with little taste for history. . . [1946] is liberally peppered with fascinating asides and anecdotes that humanize its subjects. . . . An appealing introduction, aimed at a wide audience, to events that continue to shape global affairs." --Kirkus
"[An] informed, engaging, and accessible history of the year that U.S. president Harry Truman called the year of decisions. . . . With mesmerizing detail and riveting vignettes scattered throughout, Sebestyen explores virtually every major postwar theme and event." --Publishers Weekly
"Sebestyen chronicles crucial events of 1946 in this outstanding work. The author does not shy away from the explicit and heartbreaking details in creating a powerful and readable account of this challenging year. Highly recommended for anyone interested in world history or for those seeking to understand why the world is as it is today." --Library Journal
"A much-needed addition to the existing literature on the post-Second World War period. . . . Victor Sebestyen has powerfully argued that the year 1946 has shaped our modern world." --The Washington Book Review
Praise from the UK for Victor Sebestyen's 1946
"An exceptionally involving and horrifying book . . . grindingly awful detail." --Sam Leith, The Spectator
"[Sebestyen] reminds us that the world's miseries persisted in plenty after the defeat of the Axis." --Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
"An impressively wide-ranging and detailed survey of the war's aftermath. . . . An uncommonly clear bird's-eye view of a post-war world of rivalry, hardship, and chaos." --Peter Lewis, The Daily Mail
"1946 is a gripping and authoritative work spanning the world: an excellent, elegant and exciting panoramic portrait of the dark world emerging from WWII." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
