Book Reviews: Hero of the Crossing

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Hero of the Crossing: How Anwar Sadat and the 1973 War Changed the World (Potomac Books), by Thomas W. Lippman

No one thought much of Anwar Sadat when he inherited Egypt’s presidency in 1970—not his Soviet advisers, not the CIA and especially not the Egyptian people. As Hero of the Crossing recounts, Sadat was shrewder than anyone imagined and changed the dynamic of the Middle East (and the world) with his 1973 surprise attack on the Israeli-held Sinai Peninsula. This triggered the Arab oil embargo that rattled the comfort of Westerners and led to the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. He did not have long to enjoy his triumph. The former Washington Post Middle East bureau chief, Thomas W. Lippman, argues that Sadat lost touch with his countrymen when the adulation of the Western media went to his head. He also failed to recognize the growing popularity of the Islamist extremists who assassinated him in 1981. (David Luhrssen)

Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich (W.W. Norton), by Walter Kempowski

German novelist Walter Kempowski embarked on a quest to compile a collage of impressions of Germany in the last days of World War II. Swansong 1945 is drawn from diaries, letters, minutes of official meetings and even a flier from “Werewolf,” the Nazi underground threatening death to all traitors (“Our revenge is deadly!”). Ordinary citizens noted that many soldiers wore civilian garb under their uniforms; Hitler’s birthday drew mixed response; and Hitler himself conceded: “If fate has other plans, then I will vanish as an inglorious refugee from the stage of world history.” The best bits flow together like a conversation. (David Luhrssen)