From Sarajevo to Potsdam, by A.J.P. Taylor. Harcourt, $5.50 S OONER OR LATER Alan John Percivale Taylor is going to force himself triumphantly upon anyone interested in modern and contemporary history. His triumph is going to be the greater if he can leave behind himself a peculiar feeling of outrage, bewilderment and laughter, as well as a trail of skewered victims belonging to every faction and prejudice. Why not then submit, at least temporarily, to Taylor’s latest production, From Sarajevo to Potsdam?
In the intention of the publisher this profusely illustrated study is obviously supposed to be the tail, if not the tail end, of a new series dealing with European civilization from start ‘to finish. Unlike most such series, this one is designed for a popular audience, even though impressive scholarly names are associated with it. Picture it sitting on the shelf as a kind of companion of the Collier’s Encyclopedia and you have the right idea. Unfortunately Taylor is hardly the man to give us a bird’s eye view of history, for this work is not a college text routinely supplying data on politicians, wars and depressions, i.e., the kind of thing that makes the private life of Profumo about as exciting as this year’s tax table, nor is it an ably interpretive survey unless one identifies able interpretation with a collection of perversely bizarre opinions. In a word, this book is not for the uninformed, who are merely going to be confused by it, or for the uleerous, who will merely be hospitalized by it. Rather it is a pleasant pastime for those readers who have come to know something of Taylor in advance and who are prepared to amuse themselves as Taylor amuses himself, slashing at shibboleths here and shibboleths there. You are his ~ favorite victim if he leaves you raging. He succeeds in grating on my nerves now and then, but I find him immensely readable. _ Taylor, an author already famous
Comments