Books, Arts & Manners: Gallic View of the Recent Past

History of the Cold War, by André Fontaine. Pantheon, $10.00

A writer of history, unless he is a chiseler, can contribute nothing to the plot of his book: all of it is established before the author sits down to work. Thus, a writer of history must be judged by his style alone—the term, to be sure, used in its widest ramifications. Style, in the case of a historical writer, is his acumen in arranging and interpreting what is already known in language that makes mere facts humanly meaningful. So much for the standards by which I propose to judge André Fontaine’s History of the Cold War.

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William S. Schlamm

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History of the Cold War, by André Fontaine. Pantheon, $10.00

A writer of history, unless he is a chiseler, can contribute nothing to the plot of his book: all of it is established before the author sits down to work. Thus, a writer of history must be judged by his style alone—the term, to be sure, used in its widest ramifications. Style, in the case of a historical writer, is his acumen in arranging and interpreting what is already known in language that makes mere facts humanly meaningful. So much for the standards by which I propose to judge André Fontaine’s History of the Cold War.