The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now by Michael Burleigh

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now Reviews

• 
  Kusaimamekirai

  In his book “The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of now” Michael Burleigh makes the argument that the era of the United States as the sole force of economic and military influence has passed. This is not to say that America will ever cease to be a force in world affairs, it is clearly too large to be anything but that, but rather with its retreat into itself has opened up a vacuum for Russia and China to step into. While this is ostensibly the story of these three nations, it is also the story of Europe, the Middle East, and to a lesser extent Latin America and whose sphere of influence they will choose to align themselves.
  China in particular is the best poised of the three to take up the mantle of global leadership being vacated by America. Already a major trading partner in Latin America, Iran, and Europe, Burleigh makes a compelling case that despite China’s appalling human rights record, it is perhaps the most stable of the three countries. As the author rhetorically asks on more than one occasion, if you are the leader of a nation, would you rather deal with Xi Jinping or Donald Trump? The former may be an autocrat but he is by most accounts less of an ideologue and more of a practical businessman. The latter is a self proclaimed businessman but is highly erratic, with his policies changing with the next tweet.
  Given the choice between stability and uncertainty, its not hard to guess what kind of partner most nations prefer.
  As much as China is set to profit economically from the withdrawal of the West, Russia is gaining militarily from this same retreat.
  In places like Syria, Iran, Western China, the Ukraine and others, the unwillingness of the United States to take its customary role as a bulwark to Russian encroachment is allowing Vladimir Putin to exert influence that hasn’t been seen since the days of the Soviet Union. As traditional alliances between the United States and Europe continue to fracture, the real winner in the end is Russia who would much rather deal with European nations singularly than as a whole. To say nothing of Russia’s growing influence with Turkey to the detriment of America.
  Burleigh covers a lot of ground here and it is a really fascinating look at how we have arrived at this moment in history. In his conclusion he does not see much hope that this current state of affairs will change any time soon. Authoritarian governments are on the rise in places they have rarely been seen before. Decades of globalization have turned people off of multiculturalism and severely weakened their trust in their governments. In addition, technology has made us less civically engaged (contrary to popular belief) and allowed the angriest, and most unhinged segments of society to have a platform that would have been impossible before. Burleigh nicely sums up the current state of affairs in his conclusion:
  
  “Optimists foresee a future in which humans collaborate with increasingly sophisticated machines. A great wave of technology driven change is already lapping around our feet, or rather absorbing our minds in devices held in our hands. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have enormous effects on our societies and our individual sense of worth which is largely defined by work. Automation, or rather human anomic alienation, relies on our collaboration, and our consent can be withdrawn. We choose, after all, to check out at machines rather than with the low skilled who sit at tills. We choose to buy books or bank online, with the fiction that we are pressed for time, even as we spend three hours or more per day navigating a two-inch screen reading dross or pretending to ‘connect’ with total strangers, whereas the reality is that complex algorithms are simply reducing us to a product traded with advertisers. Worse, deep data analysis of social media will allow governments to detect opposition to any given policy before it generates more than a few angry Tweets. We choose not to be civically engaged, whether singing in a choir or buying the local newspaper, or, increasingly, national ones. We are increasingly trapped in a perpetual electronic and virtual present that is turning people into incommunicative idiots capable of little more than a tweet, or into ‘slacktivists’ who mistake tweets for doing anything.”
  
  My only criticism of this book would be Burleigh’s tone at times. He refers to people he disagrees with as “disgraceful”, “ghastly” , or often worse. I’m no fan of Fox news for example (who he saves some of his worst epithets for) but resorting to name calling is just getting down in the muck with those you are criticizing. It’s simply a race to the bottom and in my opinion doesn’t have a place in a book that is otherwise meticulously researched and cogently argued.
  
• 
  Stefan

  This review is also available here -->
  www.absurdliterature.blogspot.com
  
  From Cold War to Hot Peace (not my line). That's one way to describe this magnificent book which could be described as ''contemporary history'', should you be so inclined and full of pomp. Focusing on the major players in the world (Trump, Putin, Xi, the EU and some other less savoury figures) it describes the world of now and how that now came to be. What I perhaps liked most about this book is how even-handed the author deals with the people he writes about. Sometimes blistering where it's necessary, praising where it can, but never taking his eye off the ball. Describing how modern China evolved from its ''Century of Shame'' to the growing giant it is today, from Turkey's early attempts at secular democracy and how Erdogan is going to take it all down and how Trump seems to be like-mindedly set on doing that to the US. This leaves us with Europe, the self-styled ''Empire of Virtue'' which cashed in on the peace-dividend but might have issues living through the next decades, now that the returns of those dividends are running out. And lastly, Putin. The calculating Russian who has been carefully crafting the idea of a Russian super-power though, in reality, it is most likely going to be relegated to, at best, a second-tier in the world power rankings. China will be in the lead, and alone at that if the EU and America are not careful about how they lead their countries and perhaps more importantly, on whom they choose to lead themselves.
  Naturally, a book about now has a tendency to become really outdated, real fast. Read this in 2018 if you want it to have any use for you.
• 
  Daniel Minister

  A really engaging read into the modern geo-political landscape. Written in a enhancing striking manner that really made me want to read more on specific subjects. The format of each chapter being a different region is similar to prisoner of geography and also works well in this too. The author is neutral on the individual political basis but is a educated liberal man who can highlight some of the flaws in a more populist approach.
  
  I rarely give out 4 stars for a book but this has held my interest hostage and I’m sad to have come to the end of the journey.
• 
  Pierre

  This is a book that struggles to live up to its considerable ambition of providing its reader with a quick overview of the current state of international relations, or at least of how they looked to political historian and long-time scholar of Nazi Germany Michael Burleigh. Having dismissed Africa and Latin America as "not central" to his book in the prologue, and also providing very limited coverage of the Indian subcontinent or South-East Asia, Burleigh divides The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now into five chapters, covering the Middle East, Russia, the US, China and the EU. Each chapter provides Burleigh's current views on the major political developments affecting each country or region, as well as, where relevant, some historical background-setting in order to draw out more time-sensitive narratives.
  
  There is nothing inherently flawed about The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now and books like it. Not everyone has the time to read in-depth books or academic papers about domestic and political developments in one single region of the world, let alone all those covered in this book. A quick romp around international politics can therefore be very useful, either as a quick overview for those wanting a refresher on major developments or as an introduction to international politics for neophytes. Burleigh has clearly read up on the subjects he covers and his writing is clear and concise.
  
  The issue with The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now, and the reason I ultimately struggled to enjoy the book, is that Burleigh seems incapable of preventing himself from inserting his own views on current events into his work. In their most annoying form, these manifest themselves as what the Literary Review's comment on the book's back cover describes as "trenchant and sometimes blistering" quips. One particularly egregious example is the following passage:
  
  "Imagine now a new meritocratic aristocracy, with none of the virtues of old aristocracies, and which has sealed itself off from public services. For sure they call their foreign cleaners 'love' and donate to the world's starving, but most of their serious energy goes to self-cultivation and guaranteeing their children's membership to the new elites."
  
  This is indeed quite a witty quote, the strange extolment of the "virtues" of old aristocrats aside. The issue is that it, and quotes like it, bring nothing to the overall narrative and go against Burleigh's avowed intention, on
  which he dwells at length in the book's prologue, of providing a factual breakdown of the main current in international relations in order to let the reader come to their own conclusion. Books which are clearly out to make an argument, whichever that argument may be, have their place in the "current affairs" body of literary works. But in this case, such quips take away from Burleigh's own research and lead to the book sometimes feeling like you are listening to the comments of that obnoxious dinner guest, who has an witty opinion or anecdote to share about absolutely every subject of conversation, but who is found lacking when this delves into the detail. It is also gets tiring, for lack of a better word, to read page after page in which this cynical "trenchant and sometimes blistering" tone is prevalent.
  
  There is also something to be said about the pitfalls of all books which provide a "present-focused," as Burleigh describes it, overview of international politics. It is commendable to seek to steer clear of predictions or prescriptions, although at times Burleigh cannot help himself from providing comment on what he thinks is likely to happen. But the issue endemic in this kind of work is that it quickly becomes obsolete, especially in times when politics is so volatile. In the edition I had read, which included updates up until mid-2018 (the original edition came out in the second half of 2017), the revised and updated passages had also been integrated into the main body in a rather unwieldy way, so that you had passages that looked forward to an event in early 2018, only for the end of the chapter to cover that very same event in the past tense.
  
  Overall, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now had some interesting insights which were let down by a sometimes grating tone and a poorly-managed update to the original edition. You will certainly learn something from reading this book, as indeed I did. But there are better works out there which fill the same niche, not to mention books that are considerably more up-to-date.
  
• 
  Michael F Duerden

  Disappointing
• 
  Paul Chiswick

  Clearly very well researched . . . but dull. I found it disjointed and could not take to Burleigh's opinionated style. Rather than remain a neutral observer, he overlays his own prejudices on the narrative. Irritating. I'm sorry I didn't enjoy it more as it held out such a promise. And it was a present from my dear wife. Sorry, darling.