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Crucible : Thirteen Months that Forged Our World

Livre numérique


The Times Book of the Year

BBC History Magazine Book of the Year

Daily Telegraph Book of the Year

BOOK OF THE WEEK - The Times

‘The strength of this book lies in the cold realities it delivers. “The thirteen months of 1947-48,” writes Fenby, “provide trenchant examples of how realpolitik can serve a wider purpose if those in power know how to use it.” Crucible captures perfectly the urgency of the time…Read this book for the light it shines on a turbulent time; cherish it for the lessons it provides’ - Gerard DeGroot

'Looking back 70 years Jonathan Fenby argues convincingly that the period from 1947 to 1948 “really did change the world”. His book is an assured gallop across the terrain of contemporary history in this fateful year. The global devastation of the second world war had smashed longstanding institutions and bankrupted empires, leaving behind the kind of power vacuums that were major openings for change and chaos. Crucible swings from one region to the next in a fast-moving account of how local actors filled those vacuums, often with violence.’

Mary Sarote, Financial Times

One year shaped the world we know today. This is the page-turning story of the pivotal changes which were forged in the space of thirteen months of 1947-48

Two years after the end of the second conflict to engulf the world in twenty years, and the defeat of the Axis forces of Germany, Italy and Japan, this momentous time saw the unrolling of the Cold War between Joseph Stalin's Soviet Russia and the Western powers under the untried leadership of Harry Truman as America came to play a global role for the first time.

The British Empire began its demise with the birth of the Indian and Pakistan republics with the flight of millions and wholesale slaughter as Vietnam, Indonesia and other colonies around the globe vied for freedom. 1948 also marked the creation of the state of Israel, the refugee flight of Palestinians and the first Arab-Israeli war as well as the victories of Communist armies that led to their final triumph in China, the coming of apartheid to South Africa, the division of Korea, major technological change and the rolling out of the welfare state against a backdrop of events that ensured the global order would never be the same again.

This dynamic narrative spans the planet with overlapping epic episodes featuring such historic figures as Truman and Marshall, Stalin and Molotov, Attlee and Bevin, De Gaulle and Adenauer, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru and Jinnah, Ben Gurion and the Arab leaders. Between them, they forged the path to our modern world.



  1. Society in Crisis

    Clive Aslet, Phillip Bobbitt, Peter Burke, Gillian Clark, Jonathan Fenby, Peter Frankopan, Jessica Frazier, Lawrence Freedman, Matthew Goodwin, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Johan Hakelius, Vanessa Harding, Tom Holland, Mark Honingsbaum, Alexander Lee, Tim Marshall, Lincoln Paine, Iskander Rehman, Donald Sassoon, David Seedhouse, Graham Stewart, Hew Strachan, Helen Thompson, Richard Whatmore, Adrian Wooldridge

    book
  2. Samhälle i kris

    Peter Frankopan, Helen Thompson, Tim Marshall, Jonathan Fenby, Donald Sassoon, Matthew Goodwin, Lawrence Freedman, Jessica Frazier, Alexander Lee, Iskander Rehman, Tom Holland, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Clive Aslet, Johan Hakelius, Lincoln Paine, Hew Strachan, Gillian Clark, Mark Honingsbaum, David Seedhouse, Vanessa Harding, Richard Whatmore, Philip Bobbitt, Peter Burke, Graham Stewart, Adrian Wooldridge

    audiobookbook
  3. Nation, state and empire

    Robin Lane Fox, Gillian Clark, Steven Grosby, Tom Holland, Peter H Wilson, Larry Siedentop, Lawrence James, Maurizio Viroli, Simon Mayall, Jessica Frazier, Jeremy Jennings, Josef Joffe, Philip Bobbitt, Richard J Evans, Lucy Riall, Lars Trägårdh, Charles S Maier, Rob Johnson, Tim Marshall, Harvey Whitehouse, Christopher Coker, Janne Haaland Matláry, Carlos Escudé, Jonathan Fenby, Martina Winkelhofer, David Goodhart, Iain Martin, Freddy Gray

    audiobookbook
  4. Nation, stat och imperium

    Robin Lane Fox, Gillian Clark, Steven Grosby, Tom Holland, Peter H Wilson, Larry Siedentop, Lawrence James, Maurizio Viroli, Simon Mayall, Jessica Frazier, Jeremy Jennings, Josef Joffe, Philip Bobbitt, Richard J Evans, Lucy Riall, Lars Trägårdh, Charles S Maier, Rob Johnson, Tim Marshall, Harvey Whitehouse, Christopher Coker, Janne Haaland Matláry, Carlos Escudé, Jonathan Fenby, Martina Winkelhofer, David Goodhart, Iain Martin, Freddy Gray

    book
  5. Past and Present

    Maurizio Viroli, Cory J. Clark, Janne Haaland Matláry, Vernon Bogdanor, Michael Burleigh, Erica Benner, Nathan Shachar, Rob Johnson, Brendan Simms, Emma Sky, Elisabeth Kendall, Josef Joffe, Peter Ricketts, Karin Svanborg-Sjövall, Fraser Nelson, Gudrun Persson, Andrew Monaghan, Calder Walton, Christopher Coker, Iain Martin, Niall Ferguson, Jonathan Fenby, Rana Mitter, Yu Jie, John Bew, Philip Bobitt, Kori Schake

    book
  6. Om historien

    Maurizio Viroli, Cory J. Clark, Janne Haaland Matláry, Vernon Bogdanor, Michael Burleigh, Erica Benner, Nathan Shachar, Rob Johnson, Brendan Simms, Emma Sky, Elisabeth Kendall, Josef Joffe, Peter Ricketts, Karin Svanborg-Sjövall, Fraser Nelson, Gudrun Persson, Andrew Monaghan, Calder Walton, Christopher Coker, Iain Martin, Niall Ferguson, Jonathan Fenby, Rana Mitter, Yu Jie, John Bew, Philip Bobbit, Kori Schake

    audiobookbook
  7. Society in Crisis

    Clive Aslet, Phillip Bobbitt, Peter Burke, Gillian Clark, Jonathan Fenby, Peter Frankopan, Jessica Frazier, Lawrence Freedman, Matthew Goodwin, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Johan Hakelius, Vanessa Harding, Tom Holland, Mark Honingsbaum, Alex Lee, Tim Marshall, Lincoln Paine, Iskander Rehman, Donald Sassoon, David Seedhouse, Graham Stewart, Hew Strachan, Helen Thompson, Richard Whatmore, Adrian Wooldridge

    audiobook
  8. Past and present

    Brendan Simms, Peter Ricketts, Gudrun Persson, Fraser Nelson, Andrew Monaghan, Rana Mitter, Iain Martin, Elisabeth Kendall, Rob Johnson, Josef Joffe, Janne Haaland Matláry, Niall Ferguson, Jonathan Fenby, Christopher Coker, Cory J. Clark, Michael Burleigh, Vernon Bogdanor, Phillip Bobbitt, John Bew, Erica Benner

    audiobook
  9. Crucible : Thirteen Months that Forged Our World

    Jonathan Fenby

    book
  10. The History of Modern France : From the Revolution to the War on Terror

    Jonathan Fenby

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  11. The Sinking of the Lancastria: Britain's Greatest Maritime Disaster and Churchill's Cover-Up

    Jonathan Fenby

    book
  12. Alliance : The Inside Story of How Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill Won One War and Began Another

    Jonathan Fenby

    book