I have a very busy schedule so this took an embarrassing amount of time for me to finish. That shouldn’t take anything away from the book. I found this book fascinating. I love history in all forms and while this book covers WW11 era America, a time that has received a lot of attention, this book goes behind the scenes of some of America’s biggest policy decisions at the time and picks apart the many players and the levers they were pulling on at the time. This book is full of little known information about people that may be household names. For example, everyone today is familiar with Herbert Hoover and the catastrophic financial downturn the proceeded WW11, but I never knew he was also a committed humanitarian who having lost the presidency to FDR, went back to work in the Truman administration trying to prevent the entire European continent from starving following the devastation of WW11. There is a heavy focus on the Japanese internment and the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, perhaps too narrow considering the title, but the great deeds and misdeeds of the US Government could perhaps take up many volumes so maybe a slender focus is a good thing. Thank you Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This Is Not Who We Are by Zachary Shore tackles the issue that is at the core of almost every issue within any country (or any group), who are we. In this case, it is about the United States and uses several key decisions from World War II as the material from which to examine the question.

While the specific details of the decision-making processes and the opinions of both those in power and of the American public are very interesting, I actually came away with a greater appreciation for how difficult it is to accurately make any broad sweeping statement about any "we." I will try to explain what I mean.

It is easy to see, for example, the internment of Japanese Americans as both wrong and emblematic of what the country is. And I'm not sure it is an incorrect assessment, within certain limitations. Yet it is also easy to see the move to help in recovery, for both our allies and our former enemies, as emblematic of what the country is. And again I think it is a reasonable statement, within limits. Those broad sweeping assessments, and many others, live side-by-side, often on the same issue. Many argued against the inhuman actions, yet we did them anyway, so that is indeed who we are. Some wanted to extend their revenge and not help others, yet we helped anyway, so that is indeed who we are. How is this possible?

I tend toward cynical, so I lean toward reconciling these opposites in a way that highlights the inhuman aspects that face outward in times of conflict, partly because even in relatively peaceful times, like now, we are still doing inhumane things to our fellow human beings under the misguided flag of nationalism. So for me, we are vengeful, immoral, and unethical when we have something as a country to gain, as determined by those in power. Whether most of the citizens agree don't matter to these people, they have power and they choose to rule rather than govern. Once our government (and by extension many large corporations that work with the government on things) has killed, maimed, and destroyed lives and landscapes, we suddenly become humane and virtuous. The people as a whole instigate this and the government, having accomplished what they wanted, then becomes a compassionate government (temporarily). This isn't entirely a case of one entity flip-flopping, but rather two entities that have different ways of viewing human lives. The powerful represented by the government they bought, and the "people" who are ashamed and try to save face.

Nothing in this book makes me see things any different than this. In fact, depending on how one wants to assess this wealth of information, it can support my position. Yet I don't think it takes that position. Shore presents what was said and done, what was debated and what was decided, and while the final pages show how decency has periodically triumphed, it doesn't agree or disagree with my point that the powers that be have always and, unfortunately it appears, will always do whatever vileness is necessary (even to our own citizens) for their perception of "security" or "right."

I highly recommend this to readers who like to learn about the decision-making that takes place in high levels of government, and especially those interested in the period during and shortly after WWII.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )