Harvey, Robert 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born August 21, 1953.

CAREER:

Journalist, politician, and author. Economist, assistant editor, until 1983; member of the British Parliament, representing South West Clwyd, 1983-92; Daily Telegraph, London, England, columnist.

WRITINGS:

Portugal: Birth of a Democracy, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1978.

(Editor) Blueprint 2000: A Conservative Policy towards Employment and Technology in the Next Century, foreword by Jim Lester, Macmillan Press (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England), 1988.

Fire Down Below: A Journey of Exploration from Mexico to Chile, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.

The Undefeated: The Rise and Fall of Greater Japan, Macmillan (London, England), 1994.

The Return of the Strong: The Drift to Global Disorder, Macmillan (London, England), 1995, published as Global Disorder: America and the Threat of World Conflict, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2003.

Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, 1810-1830, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2000.

Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2000.

A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence, John Murray (London, England), 2001, published as "A Few Bloody Noses": The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2002.

The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside Story from Smuts to Mbeki, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2001.

Comrades: The Rise and Fall of World Communism, John Murray (London, England), 2003.

A Short History of Communism, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The War of Wars: The Great European Conflict, 1793-1815, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2006.

American Shogun: General MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito and the Drama of Modern Japan, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

A journalist who also served as a member of the British Parliament from 1983 to 1992, Robert Harvey has had an enduring interest in history and world politics. This has translated into a successful writing career, as he has published over a dozen books, most of which are histories and historical biographies. After publishing a book on Portuguese history and editing a work on conservative political policy (Harvey was a Tory politician while in the Parliament), he released Fire Down Below: A Journey of Exploration from Mexico to Chile. The book is about his travels in South and Central America and his observations about the area, which are from a distinctly conservative, "dim view," as Robert S. Strother put it in a National Review article. Strother preferred other sections of the book that discuss the history of the various countries, adding: "There are some vivid scenes and characters, but too often the author seems simply to have transcribed his rough field notes."

Latin America is also the subject of Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, 1810-1830, which was lauded by some reviewers for addressing a story that is not well known to many Americans. In addition to talking about the liberator Simon Bolivar, who is probably well recognized by many American readers, Harvey also writes about Thomas Cochrane, Augustin de Iturbide, Bernardo O'Higgins, Pedro de Braganza, and Francisco de Miranda. A Publishers Weekly contributor described the result as "an ambitious account" written with "the verve of an engaging storyteller and the intrepidness of a journalist." In History: Review of New Books, Sheldon Avenius noted that the book lacks footnotes, making it of less use to scholars, but concluded: "Despite my criticism and wish for a more inclusive work rather than a loosely tied series of biographies, Harvey has produced a grand history, a very readable, exciting adventure story about the deeds of great men."

Two biographies by Harvey followed his history of Latin American leaders: Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor and Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain. The former is about Robert Clive, whose colorful life included an eventful rise in India as a successful military leader who defeated the French in the subcontinent, then proceeded to become wealthy as the governor of Bengal who was connected to the East India Company. When he returned to England in 1767, he was accused of conducting illegal business practices and, though acquitted, came to be seen as the epitome of British corruption in India. Harvey credits Clive with being largely responsible for the establishment of the Raj, painting him as largely a heroic figure who, he speculates, was a victim of foul play at age forty-nine, not a victim of suicide as most historians believe. The author "captures the complexities" of Clive's character in what is a "well-told tale," according to Jay Freeman in Booklist. An Economist contributor faulted Harvey for several historical mistakes, including mention of the British fighting with rifles twenty years before the word for the weapon was coined. The critic noted that the author is "better at untangling Clive's problems at home." Claire Hutchings, writing for Geographical, called the book a "fascinating account of a complex and colourful man."

Cochrane is a biography of the early-nineteenth-century sailor Thomas Cochrane, who was kicked out of the British Navy for insubordination and went on to fight for Chile and Brazil against Spain, and on the side of the Greeks in their war with Turkey. His real-life adventures have been compared to the colorful fictional ones of the Hornblower novels by C.S. Forester. "Avid readers of both the Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin seafaring novels will thoroughly enjoy this book," predicted Robert E. Greenfield in Library Journal.

Harvey attempts to shed a light of truth onto the myths of the American Revolution in his next book, A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence. Here he maintains that the American colonists primarily rebelled against Britain because of the latter's resistance to permitting westward expansion in North America, and not because of taxation or a noble desire for liberty. A Kirkus Reviews critic commended the author for his attempts to include the roles of minorities, such as blacks and Native Americans, in the story of the revolution, but faulted the book for "over-the-top statements," especially those depicting George Washington as ruthless, stubborn, and mean-spirited. The critic also was incredulous as to why the author "accepted the Parson Weems ‘I cannot tell a lie’ fable about George Washington as fact." A critic for Publishers Weekly, meanwhile, appreciated the author's "thoughtful arguments" that show that there were many parties and causes involved in what became the American Revolution.

Two books by Harvey focus on the collapse of oppressive governmental systems: The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside Story from Smuts to Mbeki and Comrades: The Rise and Fall of World Communism. In the former the journalist notes that there were many white organizations that were in dialogues with the African National Congress during the final years of the apartheid system. "What was not public knowledge in the late 1980s," Harvey reveals, according to Christopher Saunders in the Journal of African History, "was that people connected to the government itself were also beginning to engage in dialogue with key ANC figures." Saunders, however, faulted Harvey's account for containing too many factual errors to be a trustworthy source of reference. "Much of the first half of the book is a potted and frequently unreliable history of South Africa," Saunders maintained, concluding that the "book to be used with considerable caution" for this reason. In contrast, Comrades was hailed by a Contemporary Review critic as a "fast moving and well written survey" of the evolution and eventual dissolution of the global communist movement.

A complementary work by Harvey, A Short History of Communism, concerns the idea that the communist philosophy was elevated to near religious status during its height. A Publishers Weekly critic pointed out a number of errors in this book, such as attributing some of Vladimir Lenin's philosophy to Karl Marx and erroneously stating that Germany endured a general strike in 1919. The critic felt that Harvey "milks the idea [of communism as a religion] to the last drop" to create "a watery drink without substance." Booklist reviewer Jay Freeman countered this review by calling the work a "concise, sharply focused account of the rise and fall of a pseudoreligion" that shows Harvey to be a "superb writer." "The book is clearly written, even though it covers many communist movements, and it is easily accessible to general readers," Margaret Gonzalez-Perez asserted in her History: Review of Books assessment.

In a rather jaundiced view of world politics, Global Disorder: America and the Threat of World Conflict, originally published in England as The Return of the Strong: The Drift to Global Disorder, takes an unfavorable view of what is going on in countries outside the world's leading democracies. "The book begins with a re-interpretation of the post-Cold War international system firmly placing the current state of flux and change in an arena of global disorder," reported Contemporary Review contributor Cerwyn Moore, who complained that Harvey assumes a negative viewpoint on world events, "thereby offering only a selective interpretation of global relations that dismisses the potential of a plural, more interconnected approach to international affairs." Harvey regards the world largely in terms of potential threats to Great Britain and the United States, only suggesting that changes in diplomacy are required to minimize these threats. "This is an obvious conclusion that bears little resemblance to the cause and effect, or the context-specific nature, of the various threats mentioned in the chapter," contested Moore.

After publishing The War of Wars: The Great European Conflict, 1793-1815, Harvey offered a contrasting biography of General Douglas MacArthur and Japan's Emperor Hirohito in American Shogun: General MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito and the Drama of Modern Japan. Philip Ziegler, writing in the Spectator, noted that biographies comparing military leaders (for example, Adolf Hitler to Josef Stalin) can sometimes yield fruitful insights, but "the trouble about this book is that MacArthur and Hirohito do not relate to each other in this way." Hirohito and MacArthur were just too different in their personalities, Ziegler insisted, and comparing them is "probably impossible; what we in fact get is two stories in somewhat uneasy juxtaposition." The critic concluded: "Harvey has written a competent study of an important and dramatic period. Neither as history nor as biography does it excel, but it is readable and contains much material that will be new to anyone except the specialist." A Contemporary Review critic, though, felt that Harvey was trying to make some other points, as well, including his sentiment that General MacArthur was America's last real military hero and that, although Japan lost World War II, "in reality it was the Japanese who won the struggle," as seen in the fact that Hirohito's son still holds royal office and Japan's economic power has increased. Harvey also feels that Americans should learn from their attempt to force democracy upon alien cultures, as seen in its relationship to Japan, and now with Iraq and Afghanistan.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2000, Roland Green, review of Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain, p. 394; October 15, 2000, Mary Carroll, review of Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, 1810-1830, p. 414; November 1, 2000, Jay Freeman, review of Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor, p. 514; June 1, 2002, Allen Weakland, review of "A Few Bloody Noses": The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution, p. 1672; November 15, 2004, Jay Freeman, review of A Short History of Communism, p. 537; January 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of American Shogun: General MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito and the Drama of Modern Japan, p. 50.

California Bookwatch, May, 2006, review of American Shogun.

Contemporary Review, December, 2000, review of Liberators, p. 379; February, 2001, review of Cochrane, p. 124; November, 2001, review of A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence, p. 318; November, 2003, Cerwyn Moore, "Our Disordered World," p. 306; January, 2004, review of Comrades: The Rise and Fall of World Communism, p. 64; spring, 2007, review of American Shogun; winter, 2007, review of The War of Wars: The Great European Conflict, 1793-1815.

Economist, February 25, 1989, Roland Dallas, review of Fire Down Below: A Journey of Exploration from Mexico to Chile, p. 82; September 12, 1998, review of Clive, p. 11; June 17, 2000, "Latin American History—Freedom Then," p. 7.

Foreign Affairs, November 1, 1994, Donald Zagoria, review of The Undefeated: The Rise and Fall of Greater Japan, p. 183.

Geographical, August, 1998, Claire Hutchings, review of Clive, p. 61.

Historian, fall, 2006, Jonathan W. Daly, review of A Short History of Communism.

History: Review of New Books, fall, 2000, Sheldon Avenius, review of Liberators; winter, 2005, Margaret Gonzalez-Perez, review of A Short History of Communism.

Journal of African History, October, 2003, Christopher Saunders, "Not-Always-So-Important Secret Talks and the Fall of Apartheid," p. 542.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2002, review of "A Few Bloody Noses," p. 381; January 15, 2003, review of Global Disorder: America and the Threat of World Conflict, p. 125; September 15, 2004, review of A Short History of Communism, p. 902.

Library Journal, September 15, 2000, Mark L. Grover, review of Liberators, p. 93; November 1, 2000, Donald Clay Johnson, review of Clive, p. 90; November 1, 2000, Robert E. Greenfield, review of Cochrane, p. 90.

National Review, April 21, 1989, Robert S. Strother, review of Fire Down Below, p. 52.

New Statesman & Society, August 19, 1994, review of The Undefeated, p. 39; June 30, 1995, review of The Return of the Strong: The Drift to Global Disorder, p. 39.

Perspectives on Political Science, spring, 2001, John Harmon McElroy, review of Liberators.

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2000, review of Liberators, p. 74; October 9, 2000, review of Cochrane, p. 82; April 22, 2002, review of "A Few Bloody Noses," p. 58; February 3, 2003, review of Global Disorder, p. 68; October 11, 2004, review of A Short History of Communism, p. 65; November 21, 2005, review of American Shogun, p. 37.

Spectator, September 29, 2001, Graham Stewart, review of "A Few Bloody Noses," p. 39; June 30, 2006, "Uneasy Biographical Bedfellows."