The sad fate of three children whose youth was sacrificed to the cause of Zionism. Theodor Herzl, the charismatic leader of the Zionist movement, died in 1904 when he was in his early 40s. Because of his brutal work schedule, Herzl was unable to devote much time to his children, Pauline, Hans, and Trude, while he was alive. But his death left a hole in their lives that was bigger than the half-hour a day they saw him whenever he was in Vienna. Herzl had sunk much of the family's money into his Zionist activities, and at his death, his wife and children were thrown upon the mercy of the World Zionist Organization. The organization's leaders, also Herzl's good friends, took their charge seriously, sending out a plea to the Jewish community on behalf of the Herzl family. ``The Children's Fund'' was thus established, but not at small cost to the young Herzls, who were mortified by the public ``begging.'' Julie Herzl, Theodor's wife, was another source of embarrassment. She was an extravagant and unstable woman, and she threatened the Zionist leaders with scandals and lawsuits if they didn't meet her unreasonable financial demands. She died a few years after her husband, breaking up her children's home still further. Pauline was soon married off, left her husband, lived with various lovers, and abused drugs between bouts in an asylum; she died in 1930. Hans was a loner, subject to the same violent mood swings as his father, and unable to bear the burden of being heir to the ``King of the Jews'': He committed suicide immediately following Pauline's death. Trude was unhappily married to a much older man and also spent much of her time in asylums. She died in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. A well-told story of a public family's tragic private life. Sternberger's unobtrusive narrative allows the characters to speak for themselves in extensively quoted letters, diaries, and published writings. (photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-883255-39-2
Page Count: 350
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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