Dangerous ambition

Born in the 1890s on opposite sides of the Atlantic, friends for over forty years, Dorothy Thompson and Rebecca West lived parallel lives that placed them at the center of the social and historical upheavals of the twentieth century. Here, biographer Susan Hertog chronicles the separate but intertwined journeys of these two writers, who achieved unprecedented fame and influence at tremendous personal cost. American Dorothy Thompson was the first female head of a European news bureau, a columnist and commentator with a tremendous following. Englishwoman Rebecca West blazed a trail for herself as a journalist, literary critic, novelist, and historian. In a prefeminist era when speaking truth to power could get anyone--of either gender--ostracized, blacklisted, or worse, these two smart, self-made women were among the first to warn of the dangers posed by fascism, communism, and appeasement. But, torn between convention and the opportunities of the new postwar world, they were drawn to men who were as ambitious and hungry for love as themselves.--From publisher description.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.