Cheap Gandhi: A Memoir (Fireside Books (Holiday House)) (Book) (William Lawrence Shirer) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Gandhi: A Memoir (Fireside Books (Holiday House))

An Absolute Joy
It is with great sadness that I see that this tour de force memoir is out of print and has limited availablity. I had purchased my copy on the street never even imagining that it was hard to find.
It is impossible to do justice to this remarkable book in such a short space, but the author, the famous William Shirer, wrote this memoir some 50 years after he had met Gandhi as a young American reporter in India. Looking back over a lifetime, this book is his attempt to understand Gandhi in a larger context as a great yet humble man whose radiance, powerful intellect, and superhuman courage not only changed the world but also redefined the power inherent in the human spirit. I found the account intensely moving especially in its tragic ending. Not just because Gandhi's life came to an end at the hand of an assasin, but because his victory itself was bittersweet. His dream of a united India ended in the creation of two seperate states - something Gandhi had bitterly opposed. And although independence had been won through nonviolent means, that same independence engendered an unbelievable bloodbath. In finishing this book, one can not help but be struck with a sense of wonder that the human soul is capable of the greatness of a Gandhi and that, despite the greatness of the players, history itself must go its own way.
In short, I found this book to be both riveting and emotionally powerful. It was an absolute joy to read and I hope some day it once again becomes widely available.

---

a powerful story
Not knowing much about Gandhi, I decided that this brief book would be a good place to start to learn about this great man. I was not disappointed. I was very moved by Gandhi's story. I was shocked by the brutality of the British administration (such as the infamous crawling order). Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, his acts of disobedience (such as the Salt March), and his speeches and negotiations in defense of complete independence and Indian unity inspired and excited me.

Of course, there is a lot in the story that is sad. I must be naive because I was quite disappointed to learn about Gandhi's personal limitations (such as his sometimes disrespectful treatment of his wife, his issues with sex, and his dismissal of the Hebrew scriptures - all minor in the scheme of things.) Of course, the strife between Hindu and Muslim is tragic and continues to plague India and Pakistan.

A moving reading experience. Highly recommmended.

---

In-depth look at a great man with major flaws
It is one of the most amazing historical ironies that the one of the most non-violent independence movements in history became one of the greatest bloodbaths when the colonial power left. Once Britain relinquished power over the Indian subcontinent, hundreds of thousands of people were killed by their fellow citizens of the former colony. Ultimately, three different countries emerged from the British colony of India, and two of them, India and Pakistan, remain enemies and may go to war at any time. Mohandas Gandhi was the leader of the independence movement, and he lived non-violent civil disobedience with his every breath. In many ways, it seems inevitable that he too would also be a victim of the violent birth of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
William L. Shirer was a correspondent who spent a great deal of time in India in the early 1930's, and this is an account of that time. He spoke extensively with Gandhi and had a great deal of interaction with the other principals of the Indian independence movement. Clearly, Gandhi was a great man, and the circumstances happened to be right for a non-violent movement to be successful. Even though the British could be brutal, they were ultimately civilized enough to allow it to work. If Gandhi-like tactics would have been used against people like Hitler and Stalin the results would have been different.
Shirer clearly was impressed by Gandhi, his political astuteness and his understanding of the people of India. Fortunately, this does not blind Shirer to Gandhi's weaknesses. While Shirer does give an accurate, interesting and journalistic account of Gandhi's actions, he also explains some of the problems and how people in the independence movement like Jawaharlal Nehru at times grew very frustrated at Gandhi's ideas. With the advantage of historical perspective, some now argue that Gandhi was also bad for India, in that he never seemed to grasp the underlying religious and ethnic hatreds among the people. That is very clear in this book. He also did not grasp the need for a modern infrastructure, as his daily spinning of cloth really did not do anyone any good.
After reading the book, I did come away with some new perspectives on Gandhi and what kind of man he was. Humble, yet well aware of his significance in world history, he can be admired for the principles that he held so strongly. Some say that he died for them. I respectfully disagree, as I believe that he would have been assassinated no matter what philosophy he had expounded. Such was the violent nature of the birth of the nations that arose from the British colony of India.
William Shirer was one of the best journalists of the twentieth century. He was present at many of the greatest historical events and his descriptions of them are some of the best journalism the world has ever seen. This is another in his list of literary accomplishments.