Dominion by C.J. Sansom

Dominion (2012) by C.J. Sansom offers an incredibly important view of World War II and what might have happened if the allies had tried appeasement and compromise instead of fighting back against Hitler. It really made me think a lot about war and what is truly worth fighting for; for every action, both fighting and not fighting, there are always consequences.


This story was exciting, disturbing, interesting, and -- given current events -- pretty depressing, especially in how closely the author's 'post-credit' note regarding the (failed) 2014 Scottish independence referendum ended up applying to the subsequent "successes" of the Brexit campaign in the UK and Trump's campaign in the US. His warning against nationalism was keenly felt in the wake of those two situations.

Sansom did an especially good job of demonstrating how insidious nationalism can be, how dangerous the rhetoric of 'others' can be, and how targeting certain groups of people can seep into the core of a culture and lead to such devastating consequences for not just the targeted groups but for everyone. At the risk of getting "too political," are we there again, so gradually we didn't notice?

“Whenever a party tells you national identity matters more than anything else in politics, that nationalism can sort out all the other problems, then watch out, because you’re on a road that can end with fascism.”

Keep reading! Beth