Foreign affairs 2019 09-10

Recent Books

226  

Military, Scienti   c, and

Technological

Lawrence D. Freedman

Normandy ’44: D-Day and the Epic

77-Day Battle for France

BY JAMES HOLLAND. Atlantic

Monthly Press, 2019, 720 pp.

The Second Most Powerful Man in the

World: The Life of Admiral William D.

Leahy, Roosevelt’s Chief of Staƒ

BY PHILLIPS PAYSON O’BRIEN.

Dutton, 2019, 544 pp.

1941: The Year Germany Lost the War

BY ANDREW NAGORSKI. Simon &

Schuster, 2019, 400 pp.

A

lthough a vast literature has

covered every aspect o˜ World

War II, the war’s length, scope,

and intensity mean that authors still

manage to   nd new angles on the same

material. Holland adopts a bottom-up

approach to the familiar story ož the

June 1944 Normandy landings and the

subsequent  ghting on the continent.

He shows how the commanders laid

their plans and responded to new

developments, and he conveys well the

sheer scale ož the logistical e¡ort and

the cleverness ož the Allied deception

plan. At the heart ož the book are the

stories ož individual people caught up

in great events: a teenage German

soldier crouching in a bunker watching

the Americans land while his confused

superiors try to make sense ož the

invasion, Allied paratroopers dropping

that set out a joint plan to mitigate

climate change by 2030. The deal, which

included China’s    rst-ever commitment

to halt the growth ož its emissions, made

possible the Paris agreement on climate

change the following year. U.S. Presi-

dent Donald Trump has pledged to

withdraw the United States from the

Paris agreement (a decision that will take

e¡ect in late 2020), but in the decentral-

ized United States, the e¡ect ož the

withdrawal will be muted, as over

two-thirds ož the states and many cities,

probably with the support ož a major-

ity ož U.S. citizens, will carry on with

their climate change policies.

Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness

Helps the Developing Countries Grow

Richer and Combat Poverty

BY ARVIND PANAGARIYA. Oxford

University Press, 2019, 384 pp.

Panagariya puts forth a trenchant case

against import tari¡s and other forms ož

trade protectionism in developing

countries. He carefully reviews both the

economic theory ož import substitution

(government-led e¡orts to replace

imported goods with domestically pro-

duced ones) and the empirical evidence

from the past six decades showing which

trade policies have fostered economic

growth in developing countries. A

vigorous supporter o ̄ free trade, he

criticizes those who advocate import sub-

stitution as a path to development. He

concedes that rapid economic growth

often raises income inequality even as it

almost always slashes poverty, but he

cautions that some policies aimed at

reducing inequality, including import

substitution, may thwart growth and

thus leave most people worse o¡.

24_Books_pp_Blues.indd 226 7/22/19 5:55 PM