Human Smoke is far more than work of nonfiction and history, it is a treatise on pacifism, and a call for an unconditional end to violence as a means toward peace. Using meticulous research and well documented sources, Baker explores the innumerable facets of society in the decades leading to WWII. With poetic prose, Baker has built a graceful and tragic narrative that - through a carefully selected series of vignettes - conveys the personalities and exchanges of the visible world players, beginning in the early twentieth century.
