Description
Book SynopsisComrades at Odds explores the complicated Cold War relationship between the United States and the newly independent India of Jawaharlal Nehru from a unique perspective—that of culture, broadly defined. In a departure from the usual way of doing...
Trade ReviewAndrew Rotter has written an original and thoughtful book on United States-Indian relations during the cold war.... This book should be read widely by diplomatic historians; it offers a model for future research and analysis and breakes important new ground in the study of international history.
* International Journal *
An agreeable read, Rotter's book provides a great many probing observations on such varying matters as smell, space, family, and truth, along with assessments of their effect on the way policy was conceived and carried out.... What Rotter's fascinating work amounts to is really less a causal account than.... a myriad of vignettes, snapshots, details, and striking insights that forces one precisely not to conclude but to think.
-- Anders Stephanson, Columbia University * American Historical Review *
In this original, imaginative and informative study, Rotter argues that cultural perceptions, perhaps more than any other factor, have affected policy makers in both America and the subcontinent when formulating policy toward each other. The result is a fascinating book.... Virtually every facet of culture is discussed and explained in masterly detail.
* Choice *
Comrades at Odds illustrates both the virtues and the shortcomings of the new history. Rotter offers a subtle reading of heretofore-neglected source materials, and he adds to our understanding of the cultural side of this difficult relationship.... This book provides valuable insights.
-- Robert M. Hathaway * Wilson Quarterly *
Rotter's study is as sophisticated and, at the same time, as commonsensical as the new approach gets. He dons theory but wears it lightly.... He interrogates such usual suspects as race and gender but adds religion, family, and folkways of economy and governance.... He has a good ear for anecdote and a good eye for the detail that illuminates the landscape.
-- H.W. Brands, Texas A&M University * Journal of American History *
