MBTB Post #2: In the Garden of the Beasts, Erik Larson, 2011
If, when I was a kid, I had known that you could make a living by rendering history interesting for people by writing meticulously researched and incredibly captivating prose, I would have wanted that job. Thankfully, Erik Larson has that job and is amazing at it. What I really admired about this book: the sheer tonnage of research drawing from every possible nook and cranny of information, from letters and diaries to papers in diplomatic pouches to banquet seating charts. Larson shed light on how the old-boy, aristocratic underpinnings of the US diplomatic corps served to undermine Ambassador Dodd’s credibility, and how short-sighted the US government was during the interwar period as they focused almost entirely on collecting war reparations from Germany and ignored Hitler’s ascendency despite repeated warnings from Dodd.
Things that stayed with me:
The description of a young Jewish woman being tortured in the street as Ambassador Dodd’s daughter looked on.
The arbitrary and capricious nature of Hitler’s violence against all perceived enemies
The juxtaposition between those for whom war lurked only on the edges and those who were being actively persecuted: ie: the Dodd children and others in their set who blithely traveled and picnicked about Europe while Jewish professionals were being slowly and routinely demoted and demonized, to the point where they were losing their livelihoods and property,
The profound impact of paranoia
The only thing that I wish I knew more about from the book was the perspective of the ambassador’s wife. Otherwise, a phenomenal book.
