Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

-- Absorbing accounts of the men and women whose ideas and actions have changed the course of history
-- Examines each person's life within the context of the politics of the time
-- Photographs, engravings, and maps enhance each book

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Booklist Review

For cocurricular reading in modern history, these political biographies of two European leaders-both socialists who believed in working within the system-relate their careers to the national and international events of their times, including the Depression, the rise of fascism, World War II, and the cold war. Both biographies give little sense of the subjects' personal lives, beyond saying that they were devoted to their families. Beginning early in the twentieth century, the Attlee volume describes British involvement in World War I and the politics of the 1920s, as well as Attlee's leadership of the Labour Party from the 1930s. Haney depicts Attlee as a shy, self-effacing socialist leader of deep moral commitment and shows that as prime minister after World War II, he helped lay the foundation for the welfare state. Brandt's story begins with the rise of Hitler in the 1930s and Brandt's 12-year exile in Norway working with the resistance until the end of the war. The focus is on his role in postwar Germany, as mayor of West Berlin, and as chancellor of West Germany, where he facilitated a reconciliation between East and West, for which he received the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize. Though Brandt is a more flamboyant character than Attlee, this biography is undistinguished in style, conveying little excitement except in the final chapter on the spy scandal that led to his resignation. Includes useful maps of Europe in 1919, 1942, and after World War II. Each book contains many photographs as well as a chronology, index, and brief bibliography. Unfortunately there are no footnotes. Gr. 9-12. HR.