The book of the year has long been a favoured genre in popular history, and is a commonplace today. While a book of hours endlessly recycles, the point of the book of the year is change, the more the better. There is an implied contest between years — you say 1917 is the most important; I trump you with 1940, or 1968 or 1979…. It is at once a rather silly genre, potentially nothing more than a dreary compendium of novelties, and one with distinct possibilities, as illustrated by both these books taking on 1956, one globally, one for Britain.
Simon Hall’s approach is to write the story of a year in global history, by moving through the Americas, Africa and Europe, taking up the story of particular events as they happen at the rate of over one a month. The theme is revolts and counter-revolts. Each chapter is nicely done, covering what within national histories are familiar events — from the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott to the beginnings of the Cuban revolution, mass repression in Algeria, revolt in Cyprus, as well as the ructions in Eastern Europe following de-Stalinisation, and more.
In this account 1956 is certainly an interesting year, but the case is not made strongly enough that this was a decisive year for the future. Indeed the book remains a set of national stories, richly evoked and, wonderfully juxtaposed, rather than an interconnected global history.
As the book more than once suggests, to its credit, there are big global stories to be told. Much of this book is about the revolt of subject racial majorities against white rule, in Alabama, South Africa, Algeria, Cuba, and even indeed in Egypt (where white men operated the Suez Canal).
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