Reviews for Settlers, Southerners, Americans: The History of Essex County, Virginia, 1608-1984

The average rating for Settlers, Southerners, Americans: The History of Essex County, Virginia, 1608-1984 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-28 00:00:00 Kenneth Freivokh The second of Zara S. Steiner's two-volume study on the inter-war period is one of the most impressive books I've read: she presents a truly staggering amount of research and information in clear, detailed arguments over the course of 1,200 pages. Her work will stand as the definitive source on European diplomacy during the "Hitler era" of 1933 to 1939. Steiner's strength lies in demonstrating the interconnected nature of global events, and in explaining the relationship between structural forces and individual agency, realpolitik and ideology. To her credit, she limits the amount of names one must remember to follow the narrative, mostly sticking to the prime ministers and their respective foreign ministers of each power. This not only serves the purpose of clarity; these men were the decision-makers, in some cases, for decades in their nation's power structures. For instance, Italy had one leader from 1922, Mussolini. Of course, Hitler dominated the Reich. But even in democratic England, Neville Chamberlain exercised control over British foreign policy. Steiner lays bare the failures of appeasement and then the new policy of deterrence up to the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. But as the master historian, Steiner does not recount events looking backwards with the benefit of hindsight; she argues war was not inevitable, at least not the catastrophic war that engulfed the world from 1939-1945. She does not push her counter-historical speculations too far: ultimately we cannot know how war would have gone had England and France (and the Soviet Union) stood up to Germany in 1938 (Munich). But Steiner does argue convincingly that the western powers pursued the wrong policy -- with disastrous results. That is not a new insight to anyone with a cursory knowledge of history, but the hundreds of pages the author dedicates from Munich on the road to war in 1939 illuminates how and why Chamberlain and the French (led by Daladier) continued to misjudge Hitler -- even after their publics had come around to the realization that war would be necessary to stop Germany. These 18 chapters are loaded with insights about the Soviet Union and Stalin, the powers' rearmament efforts (none was truly ready for war in '39), and the plight of refugees -- all in addition to the detailed diplomatic record. Five stars for Zara Steiner's 'The Triumph of the Dark.'

Review # 2 was written on 2018-08-10 00:00:00 Charlotte Pemberton Wow! What a book! The research needed to write it had to be daunting and intimidating! Zara Steiner, a historian specializing in European Foreign Offices and foreign policies, here delivers a compendium of national reactions, negotiations and actions provoked by the arrival on the world scene, of populism, nationalism, rapid armament, Fascism and Nazism. The result is proof that just about all major government in the world reacted mostly to save their internally-oriented, national, electoral skins, rather than try to delay the growing, continent-wide “Dark” that was taking over the world. Thus, each country contributed its share of events that lead up to, and abetted the Second World War. This is a detailed, wide-ranging overview that includes events other histories often gloss over: the Italian-Ethiopian War; the Anschluss; the Japanese Manchurian-Chinese War; the Spanish Civil War, the invasion of Czechoslovakia; the invasion of Poland; the invasion of Denmark and Norway, etc. And throughout the world, every government feared having to negociate with Stalin and the Soviet Regime. Most preferred negociating with Hitler who lied and told them whatever they wanted to hear. Highly recommended to anyone wanting to understand the roots of the last, big world war. All of Europe, and mostly Britain and France, had a hand in letting Hitler have his war.(less)