1947: Where Now Begins

1947: Where Now Begins by Elsabeth Asbrink, 280 pages.
Asbrink moves chronologically through this year, month-by-month through a  year that she argues was a turning point for humanity, or for a good part of it. She tells us about refugees in Vienna, in London, in France, and in Palestine. She talks of the weariness the English seemed to feel in Palestine, unwilling to struggle anymore with Jewish refugeesor with the Palestinians, leaving the fate of  a one-state or a two-state Palestine up to an international committee and then to the UN. The English left India in a hurry as well in 1947. Lord Mountbatten quickly and recklessly moved ahead with partition despite the warnings of imminent violence.
Asbrink also tells of the growing hostility shown by the Soviet Union towards politicians and citizens with any ideology other than the state-sponsored one in their newly acquired satellite states.
She ably weaves the big stories with the more focused and personal in the compelling book.