The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

44 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 Volker Ullrich, Alfred A. Knopf, 2016, $40/hardcover, $17.99/Kindle, 1,008 pages. “Timely, given the increase in right-wing intransigence throughout the world, and one of the best works on Hitler and the ori- gins of the Third Reich to appear in recent years,” says Kirkus Reviews about this first installment of Volker Ullrich’s two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler. By contrast with the four major biographies to date, which focus on the societal environment during Hitler’s rise and his invulnerability as a leader, Ascent focuses on the man himself and the life events that shaped him, making use of newly available source material. Volker Ullrich is an historian and journalist whose previous books in German include biographies of Bismarck and Napoleon. From 1990 to 2009, he was the editor of the political book review section of the weekly Die Zeit . In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond Robert Kaplan, RandomHouse, 2016, $28/hardcover, $18/paperback, 287 pages. Part history, part political theory, part nostalgic reminiscing, In Europe’s Shadow shows how Romania has been a crossroads of Eastern and Western culture throughout history. From defending itself from Eastern invaders to its subju- gation under Russian influence, Romania has looked to the West but occasionally leaned to the East. While clearly enamored with the country, the author shows how its complex and often dark history has shaped its present-day social environment and its relationship with the United States. ( See Tracy Whittington’s review in the September FSJ . ) Robert Kaplan, a best-selling foreign affairs and travel writer, is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for The Atlantic .