Publishers Weekly
05/02/2022
Journalist McKay (The Secret Life of Bletchley Park) delivers an anecdotally rich if somewhat lopsided history of Berlin from the end of WWI to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He devotes an inordinate amount of space to the fall of the Third Reich, detailing the horrific mass rapes of German women by Red Army troops and the “epidemic of suicide” among Berliners fearful of the Soviet takeover. By comparison, McKay races through the intellectually and culturally vibrant years of the Weimar Republic and the nearly three decades between the construction of the Berlin Wall and its tearing down. Though he provides an insightful account of the 1947–1948 Soviet blockade of West Berlin and the Anglo-American airlift, and unearths intriguing yet lesser-known aspects of the city’s history, including the cutting-edge atomic research by Jewish scientists at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in the 1920s and 1930s, he also overlooks some major themes, including the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”) of rapid reconstruction and growth in the first two decades after WWII. Despite the omissions and pacing issues, however, McKay’s sparkling prose and expert mining of archival material results in a memorable study of a city that has “alternately seduced and haunted the international imagination.” (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"Great subject, well-researched, brilliantly written. Anyone who wants to understand Berlin's incomparable place at the very center of twentieth century history should begin with Sinclair McKay's remarkable, mesmerizing book."
—Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent and The Fear and the Freedom
"McKay's powerful imagery and magnetic prose combine to produce an electrifying new account of Berlin. 'You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin,' claims the author. He makes a compelling case."
—Julia Boyd, author of Travelers in the Third Reich
"Powerful. Visceral. Truly revelatory. Beautifully written and utterly compelling. I didn't think Sinclair McKay could top his previous book, which was masterful. He has proven me wrong with Berlin."
—Damien Lewis, author of SAS Bravo Three Zero
"Anecdotally rich . . . McKay’s sparkling prose and expert mining of archival material results in a memorable study of a city."
—Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
07/01/2022
Berlin is outstanding among cities for its unique industrial, intellectual, scientific and artistic vigor. Journalist McKay (The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden) traces the spirit and history of Berlin from the end of World War I through the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The city's novel culture is illustrated through Berlin luminaries like Albert Einstein, film director William Wyler, actress Hildegarde Knef, and artist George Grosz. The lives of everyday Berliners, especially during World War II, are also explored through memoirs and diaries. The city's contradictory mix of tradition, avant-garde, rich, poor, obedient, anarchy, history, and modernity thrives, despite being at the heart of global geopolitics for most of the 20th century. The Nazis caused near destruction of the city by 1945, and the Soviets literally split it with a wall. But when it was torn down 44 years later, Berlin's spirit as a whole was triumphant. VERDICT Readers with an interest in the life of cities, 20th-century European history, World War II, and the Cold War will appreciate McKay's well-researched book.—Laurie Unger Skinner
Kirkus Reviews
2022-04-16
A 20th-century history of a major European city that has “alternately seduced and haunted the international imagination.”
For most of the 1900s, writes Telegraph features writer McKay, “Berlin stood at the center of a convulsing world.” It was known for artistic and scientific innovation but also for flaming pyres of books. It features abundant culture, beautiful parks, and handsome streets, but it was also the center of fascism. The author begins in 1919, noting the speed with which Berliners cycled through stages of postwar deprivation, disorder, and extremism. Even while hyperinflation crippled the economy, there was a flowering of creativity in literature, cinema, and architecture. Velocity, writes the author, is a defining trait of Berlin. The Nazis replaced anarchy with violent repression, and for years, it seemed like Berlin would become an imperial capital. However, by 1945, large parts of the city were rubble. McKay focuses intensely on this period; more than half the book chronicles the collapse of the Nazi regime and the arrival of the Russians. Unfortunately, this brutal period has already been analyzed countless times, as shown by the book’s extensive bibliography, and the author has little new to add. Then the city became a Cold War front line, especially after the construction of the Berlin Wall. At this point, McKay’s narrative dwindles away. The destruction of the wall in 1989—a crucial moment in the city’s story—receives only a page. The author fails to explain Berlin’s 30-year evolution from isolation and stagnation to economic and cultural powerhouse, and he offers no examination of the impact of unification. Showing how the mosaic of the past informs the present should be a crucial target for a historical writer. Berlin is a city of layers and contradictions, but McKay misses it. For a more gratifying portrait, turn to Rory MacLean’s Berlin: Portrait of a City Through the Centuries or Barney White-Spunner’s Berlin: The Story of a City.
A largely dissatisfying history of one of the world’s great cities.
