A book for the history buff in your life

C and I are very different people. He is logical and detail-oriented, while I'm more emotional and like considering the bigger picture. He doesn't like to spend money, while I love to shop. He would eat pasta at every meal, but I don't want it too often. He wears socks and undershirts with giant holes in them, and I replace things long before they get to that level of worn out. We often ask each other "How did we end up married?!" The struggle is real.

There are a couple of things we share, though: an appreciation for cheese, particularly smoked gouda; a preference for staying home for fun rather than going out (though I'll break that for a shopping trip); a tendency not to drink very often; and a love of reading.

We read different things, but we both really love books. So much so that our Valentine's Day tradition is to go to a bookstore and buy each other a new read. Books are a bridge for us. So I thought it would be fun to bring C in to review one of HIS recent reads. You hear from me all the time, but what about a book for the men in your life? Well, if your guys like WW2 history, C has a book they may be interested in.

From C:

Kevin Peraino’s A Force So Swift deals, as per its subtitle, with the political and historical events of 1949 as they related to the overthrow of the Nationalist Chinese state by the Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, and how this overthrow was absorbed and dealt with by the United States, particularly President Truman and his administration.  It is an interesting approach, as it attempts to view the events as they unfold through the eyes of about a dozen of the chief players including Mao, Truman, Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang, and several members of the Truman administration. I struggled with this a little bit, as the rise of Communist China has been a subject I admittedly knew very little about prior to reading this book; however, while a general knowledge of the events of World War II would be beneficial, a degree in history isn’t necessary to follow along with the story.

A strength of the book is that it makes you emotionally invested in the narrative. You develop likes and dislikes for various characters. You find yourself developing your own opinions about the issues being debated by those who experienced them first-hand. It almost feels like you are reading transcripts of the events, written down by those who experienced them. It tells a story that most people probably don’t know anything about, and does so at a level that’s easy to engage in, without drubbing you too much with an overdose of names, dates, and chronologies that plague many history books.

One thing that you don’t get in the book is much in the way of the author’s personal opinion or thoughts, or even discussion. It is, as I said earlier, almost like reading a transcript of the events. Peraino has obviously done a fair amount of research to be able to write the book in this way, as evidenced by the 80 pages of notes and bibliography at the end. So if you’re looking to just read the story of what happened, this is the book for you. If you’re looking for a book that dissects the events of 1949, how and why the context of the era was what it was, and how the year fits into the broader timeline of history, this might not give you what you’re looking for (although to be fair, the Epilogue does give a few pages of notes on the decades following 1949, and how that particular year shaped many events that followed). For the most part, you are left to most of the dot-connecting and analysis yourself.

Overall, I found it to be a fairly easy read, and not a bad one to consider if you’re interested in the era of World War II and how the world changed afterwards. Personally it was an era of history that I’ve always wanted to know more about, and it has given me a good background and general understanding of the transition of China from a US ally in the war to a nation that the United States seems to struggle to know how to interact with to this day. If nothing else, it has reinforced my desire to read further about China, both in the 20^th century as well as older Chinese history in general.

Happy reading, y'all!

P.S. I received this book for review purposes. A positive review was not required.