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wisha's review
5.0
This book was not for reading dozily before bedtime and it took me several months to finish. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found so much of the topic entirely relevant to current events. It's not likely I'd have picked up a book about this subject matter had I not been looking for something by West. I may have finally found my favorite writer. It's a shame she is not more widely read today. I could have included pages of examples of her gorgeous sentences. I loved the way she could sum up a character, the upbringing of an entire generation, the complexities of political movements and personal motivations with a clear opinion without ever coming off as hammering home her point. She is a skillful writer who can easily link vastly complex topics without ever becoming tedious. I learned a great deal from this book; history is never as simple, and is far more interesting than is presented in school textbooks.
izziewithay's review against another edition
The Meaning of Treason by Rebecca West (1952)
erictlee's review
5.0
This extraordinary book, published in 1949, tells the stories of the trials of a number of British subjects who betrayed their country during the Second World War. The bulk of the book is a long chapter on the trial of William Joyce, the Irish-American who spent the war years in Berlin, broadcasting Nazi propaganda as “Lord Haw Haw”.
West is a very good writer, so her account of Joyce and the others is more than just the story of a trial. She grapples with the question of why someone would betray their homeland, their families — though in some cases, especially in the final chapter on what she calls “the children”, she questions the trial itself and the sentence imposed.
The traitors, Joyce first and foremost, come across as human beings. They each have an individual history, often a sad one, and their decisions to sign up to support the Third Reich did not come from nowhere. But that doesn’t justify anything any of them did. They all should have — and probably did — know better.
Found guilty of treason by an English court, William Joyce was hanged on 3 January 1946 at Wandsworth Prison
West is a very good writer, so her account of Joyce and the others is more than just the story of a trial. She grapples with the question of why someone would betray their homeland, their families — though in some cases, especially in the final chapter on what she calls “the children”, she questions the trial itself and the sentence imposed.
The traitors, Joyce first and foremost, come across as human beings. They each have an individual history, often a sad one, and their decisions to sign up to support the Third Reich did not come from nowhere. But that doesn’t justify anything any of them did. They all should have — and probably did — know better.
Found guilty of treason by an English court, William Joyce was hanged on 3 January 1946 at Wandsworth Prison
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