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Better Together
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Although it seldom led to shooting, the Cold War was nonetheless a hard-fought conflict that lasted over 40 years. Urban, a prolific author (e.g., Stalinism, 1986) and former editor of the British journal Encounter, has produced this memoir of his time as director of Radio Free Europe. In tandem with Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe sought to promote Western values and causes to East European countries that fell under Communist domination after World War II. Urban's strident anticommunism comes through on nearly every page; he considers Stalin and his successors as tangible evidence of evil in the world and conducted his work at Radio Free Europe with nearly religious fervor. He is especially bitter toward Western intellectuals whom he deemed "soft" on communism. Urban is a remarkably articulate writer whose account of the struggles with the Soviets over the air waves provides fascinating reading. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries.?Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An unusual record of the Cold War which shows that the veterans of the intellectual war were often as brave and determined as the soldiers and spies. Urban was one of that glittering group of European intellectuals, some of them former Communists, who understood that the Cold War was as much an intellectual and moral struggle as a fight for power. Born in Hungary, he arrived in Britain after the end of the WW II, was associated with the magazine Encounter and the BBC European Service, and in the early 1980s became director of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Today, with the outcome of the ideological struggle a matter of history, it's useful to be reminded by Urban that the outcome was often in doubt--that there were times when it could be bad for one's career prospects to be known as an anti-Communist, when it was seriously asserted that the West was as bad as the Soviet Union, and when the prospect of the Soviet Union outstripping the West was widely canvassed. Urban found the ``moral neutrality, and often direct hostility, of an opinion-making segment of the American intelligentsia . . . a more serious hindrance to our work'' than anything the Soviets could contrive. The radio stations operated within tight constraints: They were not allowed to call for revolution in Soviet-dominated nations, for example (a reflection in part of a serious misjudgment during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which Urban goes into at length). Nor could they call for the dismemberment of the Soviet empire, whatever its tensions and crimes. And some of the most distinguished critics of the Soviets were intermittently barred from the airwaves by the station's management, in gestures of ``near- appeasement.'' Passionate, courageous, balanced in its assessments, Urban's book is filled with some wise and highly original reflections on the greatest conflict of our times. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews
Although it seldom led to shooting, the Cold War was nonetheless a hard-fought conflict that lasted over 40 years. Urban, a prolific author (e.g., Stalinism, 1986) and former editor of the British journal Encounter, has produced this memoir of his time as director of Radio Free Europe. In tandem with Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe sought to promote Western values and causes to East European countries that fell under Communist domination after World War II. Urban's strident anticommunism comes through on nearly every page; he considers Stalin and his successors as tangible evidence of evil in the world and conducted his work at Radio Free Europe with nearly religious fervor. He is especially bitter toward Western intellectuals whom he deemed "soft" on communism. Urban is a remarkably articulate writer whose account of the struggles with the Soviets over the air waves provides fascinating reading. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries.?Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An unusual record of the Cold War which shows that the veterans of the intellectual war were often as brave and determined as the soldiers and spies. Urban was one of that glittering group of European intellectuals, some of them former Communists, who understood that the Cold War was as much an intellectual and moral struggle as a fight for power. Born in Hungary, he arrived in Britain after the end of the WW II, was associated with the magazine Encounter and the BBC European Service, and in the early 1980s became director of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Today, with the outcome of the ideological struggle a matter of history, it's useful to be reminded by Urban that the outcome was often in doubt--that there were times when it could be bad for one's career prospects to be known as an anti-Communist, when it was seriously asserted that the West was as bad as the Soviet Union, and when the prospect of the Soviet Union outstripping the West was widely canvassed. Urban found the ``moral neutrality, and often direct hostility, of an opinion-making segment of the American intelligentsia . . . a more serious hindrance to our work'' than anything the Soviets could contrive. The radio stations operated within tight constraints: They were not allowed to call for revolution in Soviet-dominated nations, for example (a reflection in part of a serious misjudgment during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which Urban goes into at length). Nor could they call for the dismemberment of the Soviet empire, whatever its tensions and crimes. And some of the most distinguished critics of the Soviets were intermittently barred from the airwaves by the station's management, in gestures of ``near- appeasement.'' Passionate, courageous, balanced in its assessments, Urban's book is filled with some wise and highly original reflections on the greatest conflict of our times. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Citations
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cite this book:
- The Truth Is Our Weapon: The Rhetorical Diplomacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower And John Foster Dulles by Chris Tudda in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Media and Society in the Twentieth Century: A Historical Introduction by Lyn Gorman on page 124, and Back Matter
- Outcast Europe: The Balkans 1789-1989: From the Ottomans to Milosevic by Tom Gallagher in Back Matter
- The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom,the CIA & Post-War American Hegemony (Routledge/Psa Political Studies Series, 2) by Gil Scott-Smith in Back Matter
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