Name: 1947
Rating: 3.666666666666667 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9781590518960

Elisabeth Åsbrink

"First published in English by Scribe, London, in 2017"--Title page verso.

Where Now Begins

1947

As the clock strikes the end of the war, the time begins to turn towards a new age -- the one we call now. This shift does not happen overnight, from one day to the next; instead, the world vibrates for a number of years. People try to find their way back to homes that are no longer there, or on to an uncertain future across the sea. Some run from their deeds, and most get away. Among the millions in flight across Europe looking for a new home in 1947 is Elisabeth Åsbrink's father. In 1947, production begins of the Kalashnikov, Christian Dior creates the New Look, Simone de Beauvoir writes The Second Sex, the first actual computer bug is discovered, the CIA is set up, a clockmaker's son draws up the plan that remains the goal of jihadists to this day, and a UN Committee is given four months to find a solution to the problem of Palestine. In 1947, Elisabeth Åsbrink chronicles the creation of the modern world, as the forces that will go on to govern all our lives during the next 70 years first make themselves known.

When Now Begins

Daniel Kilby

This is very interesting, but there is rather more about Per Engdahl than I would have liked. It feels like he appears on half the pages at some point, which is simultaneously far too much (for a book that is ostensibly not about him) and far too little (for a book that is about him). Either make it one or the other. 

Seriously though, at least three quarters (and possibly as much as four fifths) is given over to either Nazis or Palestine, giving the impression that nothing else happened anywhere else in the world. There’s no mention of the Paris peace treaties, nor of the coining of the term ‘Cold War’. Even the House Unamerican Activities Committee barely rates a mention.

1947 Where Now Begins

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