Year Zero: A History of 1945, (Paperback)

from neurodrew

Buruma starts with some reminiscences from his father, who was a forced laborer in Berlin during the war, having been drafted from the Netherlands. He says this led him to the topic of 1945, the year at the end of the war, and he explores the year in topics, such as the sexual license during libe...

from bezoar44

Year Zero is a history of 1945, but Ian Buruma approaches it not just as an historian, but also as a journalist and novelist - more broadly, as a intellectual. The result is a book that offers well-sourced details, but also thoughtful overarching judgments, and an artist's insights into how vario...

from GShuk

I really like how he explores the conditions and difficult decisions that were made after the war.

from jcbrunner

Ian Buruma's Year Zero covers an often neglected topic: The aftermath of a war, of the Second World War. The dramatic history of survival of his father returning from Berlin to the Netherlands opens a huge panorama of acts and events large and small around the globe. From the Netherlands, Germany...

from fist

We like to think of history as a long salami: rectilinear and to be cut up in easily digested slices. Ian Buruma's "Year Zero" shows that reality is messier and more complex. The first year after the end of WWII, far from being a tranquil oasis of peace, was turbulent and difficult. The author ha...