Description: Year Zero is a landmark reckoning with the great drama that ensued after war ended in 1945. Regime change had come on a global scale, creating the greatest power vacuum in history. Out of the vicious power struggles emerged the modern world. The scale of transformation is almost impossible to imagine. Great cities lay in ruins, their populations decimated. At the same time, the euphoria of the liberated was extraordinary. A poignant grace note throughout his history is Buruma's own father's story. His journey home and attempted reentry into "normalcy" stand in many ways for his generation's experience.
Brief description:
Ian Buruma is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism at Bard College. His books include The China Lover, Murder in Amsterdam, Occidentalism, God's Dust, Behind the Mask, The Wages of Guilt, Bad Elements, and Taming the Gods.
Review Quotes:
"Ian Buruma's lively new history, Year Zero, is about the various ways in which the aftermath of the Good War turned out badly for many people and splendidly for some who didn't deserve it. It is enriched by his knowledge of six languages, a sense of personal connection to the era (his Dutch father was a forced laborer in Berlin), and his understanding of this period from a book he wrote two decades ago that is still worth reading, The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan."
-- "New York Times Book Review"