Page 91 - All About History - Issue 56-17

Reviews

ARMAGEDDON AND PARANOIA:

THE NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION

A lifetime on the brink

Author Rodric Braithwaite Publisher Profile Books Price £25 Released 21 September
arely has a book release been as Braithwaite, who was a British diplomat in
unnervingly timely as the publication Russia during the Soviet Union’s collapse, also
of Rodric Braithwaite’s Armageddon and imbues his in-depth history with critical insight
Paranoia, which hits the shelves as tensions that should re-conceptualise 20th-century politics
Rgrow between the United States and the for any reader. Most shocking of all, Braithwaite
newly nuclear-capable North Korea. However, shows that nuclear proliferation was mainly a
Braithwaite’s book points out that the current series of high-level knee-jerk reactions, driven
crisis is just the latest in a string of nuclear by fear as much as strategy, with few questions
confrontations over the last 70 years. asked by high-ranking officials along the way.
In Armageddon and Paranoia, Braithwaite Dealing in hard facts as well as mediating on
masterfully crafts an intricate history of the the cultural impact of the atomic age, Braithwaite
nuclear arms race. The birth of this atomic skilfully articulates how the advent of the nuclear
age is described in some detail, from Project bomb embodied humanity’s fears and anxieties
Manhattan’s work during World War II to the like nothing before.
bomb’s devastating use in Hiroshima and We can highly recommend that President
Nagasaki. But the author also looks at the nuke’s Trump and Chairman Kim Jung-un add
subsequent proliferation throughout the Cold War Armageddon and Paranoia to their reading lists.
and present-day stockpiling. As you might expect The same goes for anyone else who is interested
from the story of the world’s most powerful in the development of nuclear weapons, their
weapon, Braithwaite’s biography of the A-bomb is geopolitical effects and how they have shaped
an enthralling read right from the first page. the culture of the world we live in today.

THE LOST CITY OF Z

This existential quest for El Dorado is cinematic gold

Certificate 15 Director James Gray Cast Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller,
Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson Released Out now

he disappearance of explorer Percy expeditions in the Amazon and serves up a
Fawcett in the Amazon in 1925 has much more mysterious ending.
fascinated would-be adventurers for Gray has liberally adapted The Lost City
almost a century. This would seem to of Z from David Grann’s book of the same
Tinclude writer and director James Gray. name, published in 2009, which itself took
Gray’s lyrical epic The Lost City of Z a very liberal approach to facts. As this is a
stars Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett, a man history magazine, we feel compelled to point
who wishes to withdraw from the strict out that Fawcett is a deeply romanticised
social mores and wartime horrors of early character and his contribution to exploration
20th-century Europe. He searches the is greatly overstated in this film. It’s
jungle for an ancient city and, just possibly, also unlikely that the city of Z actually
redemption — for both himself and humanity. ever existed, with the scant physical proof
Sienna Miller plays Fawcett’s faithful wife and that Fawcett ever offered having been widely
Tom Holland is his son, who joins his quest. debunked over time.
Deeply introspective and with anti-imperial On this latter point, The Lost City of Z
themes, The Lost City of Z is reminiscent of is ambiguous but, as a vivid allegory for
Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novel Heart of Darkness transcendent obsession, the question of
but manages to avoid the well-tread story of whether or not Z is real or fictional is largely
the western adventurer succumbing to his irrelevant. It’s probably also worth mentioning
own savagery. Instead, it devotes almost as that Gray’s erudite audio commentary makes
much of the movie to Fawcett’s increasingly up for the disappointing lack of extras that
alienated life back in Blighty as it does his come with the film.
91