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trilobiter's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really think you can write a history of a single year and have it come out very well. Fortunately, this isn't really just about 1973, no matter the author's protestations to the contrary. What it really is is an account of the rise of Henry Kissinger to national prominence, with 1973 being merely the moment of his greatest diplomatic successes.
I enjoyed the style of the book, without becoming particularly attached to it. Horne holds Kissinger up for examination of errors in judgment, but is undeniably in his subject's corner most of the time. That doesn't bother me, but it did make me wonder occasionally if Horne was thinking too narrowly in assessing Kissinger's character. There's more to it than whether or not the bombing of Cambodia was suitable justified by realpolitik. The casual sexism of the era is reported and then left more or less unexamined; I figure that's par for the course in the 1970s, but some recognition that the reader lives in the 21st century would have been nice.
I enjoyed the style of the book, without becoming particularly attached to it. Horne holds Kissinger up for examination of errors in judgment, but is undeniably in his subject's corner most of the time. That doesn't bother me, but it did make me wonder occasionally if Horne was thinking too narrowly in assessing Kissinger's character. There's more to it than whether or not the bombing of Cambodia was suitable justified by realpolitik. The casual sexism of the era is reported and then left more or less unexamined; I figure that's par for the course in the 1970s, but some recognition that the reader lives in the 21st century would have been nice.
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