1946

The Making of the Modern World

By: Victor Sebestyen

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

In 1946, Victor Sebestyen creates a taut, panoramic narrative and takes us to meetings that changed the world: to Berlin in July 1945, when Truman tells Stalin that we have successfully tested the bomb; to Ye'nan, China, in January 1946, when General George Marshall tells the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong that Americans won't send troops to China, assuring that the Communists will attain power; to Delhi, India, in April 1946, when UK cabinet members tell Pandit Nehur and Mahatma Gandhi that the British will leave India within a few months, ending two centuries of British imperialism.

Drawing on new archival material and many interviews, Sebestyen analyzes these major postwar decisions and others as he discusses the economic collapse, starvation, ethnic cleansing, and displacement that followed the war. This was the year when it was decided that there would be a Jewish homeland, when Europe would be split by the Iron Curtain, when independent India would become the world's biggest democracy, and when the Chinese Communists would win a civil war that positioned them to become a great power.

©2014 Victor Sebestyen (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An exceptionally involving and horrifying book...grindingly awful detail." ( The Spectator)

Excellent Analysis

This is a really great book that contains a tremendous amount of history and analysis that helps explain the second half of the Twentieth Century and beyond. I'm a bit of an amateur history buff, particularly about World War II, but there was a lot of new information here for me.

I think this book would be particularly valuable for younger persons who did not grow up in the more immediate aftermath of World War II. As the Greatest Generation is rapidly leaving us, it is important to reflect on not only what they accomplished, but the aftermath. As is the case with the world today, the leaders in 1946 made a lot of compromises, many necessitated by the economic devastation after the war except in the U.S. (which is so vividly depicted). Many other compromises were necessary due to war fatigue in the U.S., and a desire to return to more normal times.

This book is very well written with vivid descriptions. It reads almost like a historical novel. It is well paced and just very well done.

1946

A great view of how the events of the post war year determined the next 70 years.

Recommended !

Very interesting and coincise post world war II history of key events, taking place in 1946 in Europe and around the world. A pivotal time in history. Recommended. Very well narrated as well.

Quite the surprise this one

This is a remarkable addition to WWII history and something wholely unanticipated on my part. I am not new to the subject and expected simply one more tract from which to gather the occasional kernal from the inevitable blizzard of chaff. The title alone led me to expect this because it is taylor made for the light weight genre. Instead, the author presents one of the most concise, comprehensive and astute commentaries I have encountered. I count it in the first rank of must-read WWII history.

The Aftermath of WWII.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. Paints a fascinating picture of post-war Europe and Asia. German denazification, creation of Israel, occupied Japan, civil war China, and the first of hints the Cold War. Everything is here, and the facts may well surprise you.