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When Hell Froze Over
On December 31, 1991, across the enormous expanse of Russia, all flags of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were officially taken down. The daring experiment of ruling many millions of people in widely different societies under a communist central government, begun by the Bolshevik revolution in November, 1917, had come to an end. One thing that was quite constant during those seventy-four years, as most Americans have been aware, was mutual suspicion and hostility between the USSR and the USA. It did fluctuate to some extent, reaching a lull during World War II as the two nations joined forces to defeat Nazi Germany, but at times rising to a terrifying pitch, with both sides threatening to use nuclear ballistic missiles capable of destroying not only each other, but in effect the entire fabric of world civilization. The world waited in awful suspense in October, 1962, when Soviet ships carrying long-range missiles for installation in Cuba were ordered by Nikita Khrushchev to turn back only after President Kennedy announced that if one missile were launched against America from Cuba, American missiles would retaliate immediately and massively against the USSR. Many citizens of both superpowers have wondered about the basic cause of American-Russian hostility, usually concluding that it derived from the inevitable conflict between the capitalistic and Marxist economic systems, and their consequent political differences. There was truth in this; but historically there was a particular root cause that few had ever heard of. What was Nikita Khrushchev talking about, puzzled Americans asked, when during a visit to the USA in 1959 he "We remember the grim days when American soldiers went to our soil, headed by their generals, to help the White Guard ... strangle the new revolution... . Never have any of our soldiers been on American soil, but your soldiers were on Russian soil. These are the facts." This book is an attempt to give a clear account and explanation of those facts.
E. M. Halliday was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Columbia University and the University of Michigan (where he got a Ph.D. in literature with a dissertation on the novels of Ernest Hemingway). During World War II he was an enlisted reporter for Army newspapers and a field correspondent for Yank, the Army magazine. From 1946 to 1962 he taught literature and history at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago and North Carolina State. In 1951-1952 he was a Fulbright scholar in France. From 1963 to 1979 he was a senior editor with the history magazine, American Heritage. The author of many magazine and journal articles, he has also written the young adult history Russia in Revolution, John Berryman and the Thirties (a memoir of his long friendship with the poet) and has a book on Thomas Jefferson, Understanding Thomas Jefferson, forthcoming from HarperCollins in the fall of 2000. He lives in New York City with a word processor and a cat.
E. M. Halliday was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Columbia University and the University of Michigan (where he got a Ph.D. in literature with a dissertation on the novels of Ernest Hemingway). During World War II he was an enlisted reporter for Army newspapers and a field correspondent for Yank, the Army magazine. From 1946 to 1962 he taught literature and history at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago and North Carolina State. In 1951-1952 he was a Fulbright scholar in France. From 1963 to 1979 he was a senior editor with the history magazine, American Heritage. The author of many magazine and journal articles, he has also written the young adult history Russia in Revolution, John Berryman and the Thirties (a memoir of his long friendship with the poet) and has a book on Thomas Jefferson, Understanding Thomas Jefferson, forthcoming from HarperCollins in the fall of 2000. He lives in New York City with a word processor and a cat.
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 16, 2012
An excellent book on the American contribution to the Allied intervention in North Russia 1918-1919.
The book reads easily and quickly, has a good bibliography for further reference and provides a good balance (although not thorough) between politics surrounding the intervention and actions on the ground. This is an excellent book if you are interested in getting the quick and dirty of the expedition or if you are starting an in depth study.
Halliday's narrative uses information from interviews with the actual combatants to give us an excellent view of what life was like for the common soldier, who were overwellmingly American, in the fron lines. Also, the personalities of the generals and politicians whose indecisiveness often cost these soldiers their lives. Halliday mixes both the military and politcal maneuverings skillfully giving us a balanced picture of an often ignored part of out history.
Unfortunately, there are no maps in the book so you are forced to rely on the authors descriptive powers (great, but not the same as a decent map) to set the scene and understand the movements & placement of units. The author also leaves out those unit designations that allow us military history nuts to track which squad belonged to which platoon, etc. (no offense to the other reviewer, I'd just like to see a bit of balance).
Also, this book focuses almost exclusively on the American contingent of the intervention, with only passing references to the British side.
The book reads easily and quickly, has a good bibliography for further reference and provides a good balance (although not thorough) between politics surrounding the intervention and actions on the ground. This is an excellent book if you are interested in getting the quick and dirty of the expedition or if you are starting an in depth study.
Halliday's narrative uses information from interviews with the actual combatants to give us an excellent view of what life was like for the common soldier, who were overwellmingly American, in the fron lines. Also, the personalities of the generals and politicians whose indecisiveness often cost these soldiers their lives. Halliday mixes both the military and politcal maneuverings skillfully giving us a balanced picture of an often ignored part of out history.
Unfortunately, there are no maps in the book so you are forced to rely on the authors descriptive powers (great, but not the same as a decent map) to set the scene and understand the movements & placement of units. The author also leaves out those unit designations that allow us military history nuts to track which squad belonged to which platoon, etc. (no offense to the other reviewer, I'd just like to see a bit of balance).
Also, this book focuses almost exclusively on the American contingent of the intervention, with only passing references to the British side.
July 25, 2010
Stop me if you've heard this before. The U.S. military gets bogged down in some god-foresaken corner of the world suffering ongoing casualties fighting for some vague objective. After enough complaints about "our boys" spilling blood on foreign soil, the old chestnut of "fighting for democracy" is used to explain just why in fact we are over there. We eventually get out, leaving the this foreign country no better off, and in some ways worse, than it was prior to our military adventuring.
Parallels to modern history aside, this is an informative and enjoyable book to read for anyone interested in the little known story of America fighting Russia in Russia's own backyard. I don't usually read military history books, but the easygoing writing style and eschewing of typical military history prose made this quite accessable. Recommended...
Parallels to modern history aside, this is an informative and enjoyable book to read for anyone interested in the little known story of America fighting Russia in Russia's own backyard. I don't usually read military history books, but the easygoing writing style and eschewing of typical military history prose made this quite accessable. Recommended...
December 23, 2021
Well written, but unless you're really interested in military history, it will likely be a dry read. I read it because my great-grandfather was part of the expedition.
December 29, 2013
Unvarnished look at a fascinating bit of history.
This is a great look at war. Confusion, contradictory goals, competing interests, decisions made from afar, and all coming together to bring death in deep snow and sub-zero cold for Johnny Doughboy from Michigan and Wisconsin. While others went home as heroes of WW I they suffered unbelievable hardship in north Russia, many never to return. A sad story well told.
This is a great look at war. Confusion, contradictory goals, competing interests, decisions made from afar, and all coming together to bring death in deep snow and sub-zero cold for Johnny Doughboy from Michigan and Wisconsin. While others went home as heroes of WW I they suffered unbelievable hardship in north Russia, many never to return. A sad story well told.
October 11, 2007
More military action by the United States that few people know about that could help us to understand the development of the Cold War.
January 3, 2013
A very informative and detailed account of a little-known piece of history between the US and Russia.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews