#JLF Retrospective Pt 3: Antony Beevor, History, and Nonfiction

I enjoyed hearing Antony Beevor speak on three different occasions at JLF. This allowed me a reprieve of sorts because, despite his acclaim as a historian, I hadn't read any of his books. Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 had stared at me for ages from the shelves of Prairie Lights, but for one reason or another, neither had made it into my bag. Here in Trivandrum, The Second World War is available, but its so big and fat that I thought it would crowd out other pre-JLF reading.








Now, post-JLF, I've embarked on his D-Day: The Battle for

Normandy, and I'm finding out why he's received such acclaim. At page 152, I'm just beginning the chapter "Securing the Beachheads", but I have a good sense of how the book works. Beevor moves up and down the chain of command from Roosevelt and Churchill dealing with the prickly Charles DeGaulle, to  Ike's decision to proceed in 6 June despite the uncertainty of the weather, to the reactions and actions of the men in battle. War brings out extremes in humans from the base and cruel to the brave, gallant, and the kind. Even only 152 pages in, one can see how operations fail to go according to plan and how some plans prove very poorly considered. Donald Rumsfield infamously said that "you go to war with the Army you have", and one must grudgingly admit some truth to that, but you'd expect more forethought and care than what too often seems to have been the case with this invasion, such as soldiers and paratroopers weighed down by excessive gear and gliders made of plywood that would splinter upon a hard landing (sometimes impaling their occupants). Beevor weaves in and out from "the pornography of war" to its heroism and to its banality while maintaining a strong sense of story.

At JLF, Beevor had a session to himself at which he gave a talk that amounted to a synopsis of his most recent book, The Second World War entitled "Global War 1937-1945". Beevor starts his narrative with the full Japanese invasion of China in 1937, which he argues marks the opening of the war, not the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Beginning with the invasion of China, events unfold in varied and often unpredicatable ways. Casualities arising from this conflict that involved so much of the globe, impossible to know with certainty, were staggering by any calculation. While certainly not equally distributed, war crimes abounded on all sides. Beevor noted distinctions between national fighting forces as well as within national forces. For instance, he identified the U.S. Army as "slow" in the South Pacific  while the U.S. Marines were "aggressive". Finally, he defended the use of the atomic bomb against Japan given the casualites that the Allies (primarily the Americans) feared from an invasion of the Japanese mainland, estimated at a half a million, with a potential of civilian casualties in the range of two to eight million.

In response to questions, Beevor knew of no evidence that the U.S. proceeded to use the atomic bomb against Japan in order to intimidate Stalin. He also noted the racial and ethnic hatred during the war, much of it the result of propaganda, which made the war that much more barbaric as one saw on the Eastern Front, the Holocaust, and in attitudes of U.S. troops toward the Japanese. Finally, he opined that history is a branch of literature, to which I say "amen".

I heard Beevor speak on a couple of panels as well. In the "Nonfiction Renaissance" panel, with Beevor, William Dalrymple, Geoff Dyer, and Reza Aslan, listeners enjoyed some interesting comments. Dalrymple argued that storytelling (narrative) had been the primary vehicle of history writing from the time of Herodotus, but that in the era following World War II, history had moved away from narrative. However, the publication of Simon Schama's Citizens, about the French Revolution, marked a return to narrative. Dalrymple also noted the continuing popularity of "historical fiction". Panel member Reza Aslan suggested that the ability to "humanize" figures (referring particularly to his recent work on Jesus) was a key, but that nonfiction must remain "tethered" to reality, as readers have an expectation of fidelity to the truth. Beevor noted that nonfiction now uses techniques of novels to describe what the world was like in a very different time.

Someone had the good sense to ask the panelists for a favorite or especailly good work of nonfiction that they would recommend. Their answers:

1. Geoff Dyer: Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life and Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.
2. Antony Beevor: Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time for Gifts. (I encountered Mr. Beevor in the waiting line at the men's room and thanked him for validating my choice of a favorite read in 2013, to which he responded that he had some bias as Fermor had helped him during his career and that his wife had written Fermor's biography. I suggested that the recommendation was no less valid for the biases.)
3. William Dalrymple, noting that Beevor had selected Fermor, made recommendations in three fields: for travel, Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia; for history, Steven Runciman's The Fall of Constantinople 1453; and for journalism, Truman Capote's "Hardcarved Coffins" (which has been criticized as containing fabrications by the author). 

In the "Literature of War and Revolution", Beevor described conflict, such as war and revolution, as the basis of all drama and issues of moral choice. Indicative of this insight is the work of Vassily Grossman, the Soviet writer who chronicled the experience of the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II in his novel Life and Faith (the title an homage to War and Peace). Only by good fortune do we have this book, as the KGB arrested Grossman after he sent the manuscript to a publisher. The Communist Party's chief ideologist Mikhail Suslov stated that the book could not be published for two or three hundred years, but a forgotten copy of the manuscript was smuggled to the West after Grossman's death and his masterpiece was published. Grossman had the temerity (insight) to see that Stalin's Communist regime and Hitler's Nazi regime were mirror images of one another.

Beevor's own most successful book is Stalingrad, the tale of the epic battle on the Eastern Front. Beevor reported that his publisher thought that they might be able to sell 5,000 copies. Winner of the prestigious BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (books published in English in the U.K.) and the Woofson Prize (for history published in English for a general audience by a U.K. author), it has now sold around 2 million copies. No doubt a pleasant surprise for Mr. Beevor and his publisher. The Glorious Nomad purchased a copy of this, and I'm eager to hear her report.

JLF Retrospective Pt 2: Amartya Sen, A Living National Treasure

JLF keynoter Amartya Sen

After hearing from Amartya Sen twice on the opening day of JLF, I tweeted that India ought to declare him a living national treasure, as the Japanese do for some of its greatest artists and thinkers. I wasn’t kidding. Of course, there could be a down side to such an act, as he seems now on permanent loan the U.S. as a professor at Harvard (and take that, Cambridge!), and perhaps he’d be called back to India full time. In any event, he’s a cosmopolitan man and a real gem. He comes across as humble, generous, humorous, and brilliant. In his keynote address, he imagined a conversation with the “goddess of medium things” to ask seven wishes for India. I’ll share my notes about those wishes below. Indians and the rest of the world would do well to keep them constantly in mind:

1.      Sen asks for a renewed concern for classical education and the humanities. In his interview during a later session, this Nobel prize-winning economist told his audience that he studied Sanskrit and mathematics in college. If you read a book like The Argumentative Indian, his collection of essays about India, you appreciate his knowledge of India that extends back into the classical era. Against this, India is awash in engineers and IT guys without such grounding. A new balance is needed. Sen mentioned that Tagore (whose school Sen attended) emphasized the need for science education. Now the positions are reversed. By the way, I’ll make the same wish for America and the rest of the world.

2.      Sen wishes for a pro-business party on the right that is not associated with communalism (which we Americans would consider a religious or ethnic party). While not mentioned by name, he probably was thinking of the BJP, the Hindu nationalist party that scares non-Hindu Indians (and there are millions of them, mostly Muslim). But like the Republican Party in the U.S., it is an amalgam of business interests and voters who believe that they can advance only if someone else gets trampled upon. In the U.S., white men tend to vote Republican although Republican policies favor plutocrats over working people. So, again, I’ll take Sen’s wish to the U.S. with me.

3.      Sen wishes for a stronger party on the Left, one genuinely concerned for the severely deprived (millions in India) and not chasing the boogieman of “American imperialism”. I got a good chuckle out of this comment, as I believe that he was making an oblique reference to The (Khodograbe) Arrest. More than one commentator about that affair noted that the old guard in India still wants to man the barricades with the old Marxist rhetoric of anti-imperialism. The young, I think, look upon this as so much nonsense, although as with many of the young, you can expect a strong nationalist streak. In any event, the really poor should be the concern of the Left according to Sen. I say ditto for the U.S. If the Democrats have any concern for the poor (and they do have—some, they are ahead of the Republicans, but that’s not saying much at all. Both the Left  in India and  Democrats in the U.S. are too beholden to wealthy donors and middle-class interests to do what’s really best for the really poor, but Sen’s next suggestion addresses this problem.

4.      Sen wishes for a better media. The media must overcome its reluctance to investigate and reveal abuses that strike close established interests, such as subsidies for petroleum and electricity that mainly benefit the wealthy and middle-class and that do little for the really poor. The really poor don’t have access or much use for electricity or much in the way of petroleum. The media conveniently ignores these abuses of the public purse. Sen wants to see subsidies ended and funds directed to health care, immunizations, infrastructure, and other public goods. Sen suggests that funds are best spent for better schools, better higher education, toilets for all, and gender equality, among other things. While economic growth has allowed some improvements in each of these areas, economic growth without a political sector that provides for public goods will fail to allow for the improvement of everyone’s life. For models, Sen suggests that India look to the East Asians (whom, I must say, have left India behind).

5.      Sen asks for an end to the criminalization of homosexuality, a vestige of mid-19^th century British attitudes. (Here is one area in which the U.S. has made some very real gains and seems well underway to ending this discrimination.) \

6.      Sen asks for an improvement in the political culture of India and a better recognition of issues. He, like many, is heartened that corruption has become a political issue. Improved governance is a good that needs reinforcement and that can aid in many other causes, such as the eradication of polio and improvements in the condition of women.

7.      Sen requests that India become less “defeatist”. I would say “fatalist”, but the intention is the same. Far too often I perceive that Indians take a “what’ya gonna do?” attitude. But I believe—and hope—that demonstrations  and elections in Delhi and elsewhere about corruption and the abuse of women indicate a new activism that might lead India to address its many failures of governance. Of course, we in the U.S. take too much for granted, and for every “gov’ment can’t do nothing right” yahoo in the U.S. I meet, I’d like to bring them to India and say:  “Here’s what it looks like with little or no effective government”. What unreconstructed Indian lefties and American anti-government types don’t ponder enough is why Indians emigrate to the U.S. (and U.K. and Australia) and not vice versa. It’s all a package, and right now Indian’s package of opportunities and goods remains far short of that of the U.S. and even China. However, if India grants Amartya Sen his seven wishes—as only Indians and not the goddess can—then watch out, India could stand astride the world stage. 

The more that I think about it, maybe somebody should wise-up and invite Amartya Sen to make seven wishes for America, where he now lives (part-time) and teaches. We, too, could use a dose of his good advice.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2014 Retrospective Pt 1

Fun for the whole family: cool, cloudy weather doesn't dampen our spirits as we enter JLF on Day 1

C, the Glamorous Nomad, Abbas, and I returned to Jaipur over a week ago to see old friends and attend the literature festival. What a treat! I'll do a bit of a retrospective and commentary about the festival over the next few posts, but first, a few words about Jaipur, our home last year.

Upon arriving in Jaipur, C and I felt a pang of nostalgia. Compared to TRV, it's a much livelier, more interesting city. We also have many friends in Jaipur that gave us a rather active social life, while in TRV we've fewer contacts. Part of the explanation seems to be the people and part of it our circumstances, such as living in a high-rise versus the Jaipur Heritage House, my lack of a local work place, and so on. But I perceive that the people of the north are more outgoing and their English-speaking ability no less than that of those living in the south (suggestions by northerners to the contrary notwithstanding). I find the food in the north more varied and interesting, and I've even developed a soft spot for Hindi compared to Malayalam. To my ear, Malayalam seems an absolutely incomprehensible mouth full of syllables and soft consonants spoken as if the speaker is in a race to the end of a seeming endless stream of syllables. (Do you know how long it's taken me to learn to say "Thiruvananthapuram"?)

Of course, Jaipur still has its downsides. The traffic remains utterly chaotic and noisy. The "honk every three seconds" rule remains in effect. I noted that after the hard rain, the storm sewers and parts of the recently paved road (in honor of a Sonia Gandhi visit) were collapsing. I'm certain that when the motorcycles take to the sidewalks during rush hour as they do each night, several riders would flip over the tops of their cycles when they hit the holes created by the cave-ins. Nobody seems to care about much about the maintenance of infrastructure. The mass transit line is closer to completion, but friends told us  that it wouldn't open until after the election this spring. Of course.

Finally, I must comment on the weather. When we left Jaipur last June, it was--quite literally--110 in the shade. Certainly, last winter temperatures dropped, sometimes into the 30's overnight, which made our unheated apartment amazingly cold. It rained a couple of times overnight, and we had one early morning hailstorm. But each day the sun came out and warmed us up.

Not so this year. The weather was for the most part cloudy and cool, with only intermittent rays of sunshine at the Festival. On the final day, an early morning downpour flooded a couple of outdoor venues. Organizers were forced to transform Char Bargh from a 400-seat venue to about a 40-seat venue. Everyone trooped on, but to say the rains dampened spirits is a cliché that just seems too apropos. During the opening session of the final day, English novelist Jim Crace said he felt right at home with persons straggling in to avoid the rain and cold regardless of the topic. The bookstore, in a tent, was closed the final day. Fortunately, we'd been through our book-buying frenzy before then, so we didn't have to leave any titles behind that we simply had to have. We had enough in overage baggage charges as it was, but some may not have been so lucky.

Our China and Africa experts, a/k/a The Glamorous Nomad & Abbas, warm up with some delicious Diggi Palace chai

Despite the weather, the Festival was again a success. The attendees were enthusiastic and the presenters for the most part quite lively and knowledgeable. I was again impressed by the young Indians who attended in large numbers and asked questions and made comments. Sometimes India strikes me as so slow and cumbersome and out of date, but then you see again that India has lots of everything, including a core of bright young people. (The question is whether the core is large enough to help India to lift-off, which remains to be seen.) Also, India does have a vibrant literary and scholarly scene as well, which has been widely recognized before this, but festivals like this one reinforce that knowledge and certainly serve to move public awareness of their insights forward.

Two favorites of C, the Glamorous Nomad & Abbas: Gloria Steinem on the left. I opted for another session but I received a full report. JLF is full of some tough choices. 

In following posts I'll share some thoughts gleaned from the various sessions that I attended and authors that I heard speak. It was an intense and engaging five days. 

An Uncertain Glory: India & Its Contradictions by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen

Two things drew me to this book. First, the co-author, Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, whose work goes far beyond mere economics into history, political theory, and a good deal about his native India. He’s co-authored works with Jean Druze before. (And, he's the keynote speaker at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year!) But even if the authors hadn’t captured my attention, the sub-title would have: “India and Its Contradictions”. Sometimes a subtitle tells us more than the title, and this is such a case. As an extended visitor here in India, nothing has impressed me so much as its immense contradictions. 

When talking with friends and family back in the U.S. about India, I usually preface my remarks by saying that within sight of any trait that I identify is a counter-example. Extreme poverty, opulent wealth; beautiful buildings, collapsing buildings; bright capable individuals, ignorant masses (ignorant as in unschooled)—I could go on, but you get the idea. In all, India holds huge but largely unrealized potential. Compared to its neighbor China, which I visited this fall, India lags far, far behind. Why? 

Both India and China entered the post-World War II era with similar states of deprivation. China, of course, went through hells of famine, The Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. India, a democracy since its birth, did not suffer such calamities. Yet today, China has entered the modern economic world at rocket speed while India remains at a plodding pace similar to the speeds of the animal carts one still encounters on the roads. Did India make a mistake opting for democracy? 

Sen and Dreze address these questions and others. They note the impressive rates of growth of the Indian economy in the last decade and more (now significantly slowed). Despite these growth rates and other markers of success, India lags behind many of its peers in the arenas of education, healthcare, inequality, and other markers of social well-being. China, on the other hand, performs much better in almost all of these areas. Indeed, Sen and Dreze note that China’s lead in education and health came long before the market reforms beginning in 1979 with Deng Xiaoping. Mao’s regime established basic standards. Indeed, within India the authors find significant gaps between many of the states, with Kerala (where we now live) and Tamil Nadu performing much higher on many of the measures of performance. Both have competitive elections with Communists and other left groups having held power. 

Toward the end of the book Sen and Dreze address the need for political action in India. Indeed, this book seems to bolster the contentions of Acemoglu and Robinson in their book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. My one line summation of the Why Nations Fail: it’s all about the politics. Sen and Dreze seem to arrive at the same conclusion: a different direction of the political body politic would have taken India in a better direction, and it still can. Overcoming old mindsets, clientism, corruption, caste and class loyalties, and so on, won’t be easy. But until India decides to take a very different course, it will remain toward the back of the pack, all of the new billionaires notwithstanding. 

Anyone familiar with Indian politics might despair at this point. Both Congress and BJP seem wedded to the status quo. However, there are rays of hope. The Aad Adami (Common Man Party), running primarily on an anti-corruption platform, ran very strongly in Delhi recently and has now formed the government there. This may be the middle class political uprising that India needs. I’ve contended that until a politically motivated middle class takes the helm of politics, governance here—which remains poor—will continue to lag, and with it, the whole nation. In addition, the outcry from women’s groups after the ghastly rape and murder in Delhi last year suggest the political agenda may move away from the status quo, client-driven politics that mark the current climate. Some political leaders should be able to establish an agenda that provides the poor with both protection and real opportunities, while providing the middle class with a better quality of life. (The rich can take care of themselves.) 

India should exist as a beacon of hope as the largest democratic nation in the world, not as a laggard compared to its authoritarian, non-democratic neighbor China. An Uncertain Glory should serve as a bucket full of icy water in the face to wake-up Indian elites and the middle class to their current plight. A successful government isn’t one that will simply see a successful mission to Mars or focus on diplomatic tit-for-tat, but one that strives to provide a billion plus people the potential that can be theirs, one where disease, ignorance, and poverty aren’t driving forces in their lives and where those who’ve made into the middle class can enjoy a better quality of life. 

Cross posted @ Taking Readings.