Remembering the 20th Century Limited
In this new collection of essays, Matthew Stevenson weaves together a historical tapestry of the last hundred years. From the battlefields at Gallipoli and those around Armenia, to Cold War Washington and modern Beirut, he has written a compelling, yet often humorous and always accessible account of persons and places encountered in his travels.
An American writer who moved to Switzerland in 1991, Stevenson writes with grace and passion about his visits to World War I trenches, ground zero at Nagasaki ("we inspected a replica of Fat Man — a Neolithic fish of plutonium, with gills, a squat body and a sharp tail — hanging vertically, as if still on its descent"), Serbia ("The problem with dismembering Yugoslavia was that its internal borders were drawn to prop up the Communist coalition, not to outline national boundaries"), and war-torn Lebanon.
In addition to the descriptions of his world travels, Stevenson’s keen eye often returns home to the United States. He describes the strange case of Alger Hiss ("To his defenders...Hiss was convicted as a metaphor, someone to pillory, in the absence of Franklin Roosevelt, for the lost illusions of Yalta and the collectivism of the New Deal"), his love-hate feelings about professional sports, and his childhood railroad journey on the Twentieth Century Limited.
Ever present also is Stevenson's love of literature and the books he 'carries on' as travel companions. For world or armchair travelers, this book is a must and a pleasure.