An edifying and diverse survey of 20th-century Jewish life.
An extensive look at Jewish civilization and culture from the eve of World War II to the Yom Kippur War.
The ninth installment in this series covers the years between 1939 and 1973, from the Holocaust to the many facets of Diaspora, the founding of the state of Israel, and Jewish life in the United States. The material—edited by Kassow, a professor of history at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and Roskies, a professor of Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City—is generally organized with a short biographical sketch of each source followed by their written work or images. It contains works by such well-known authors as Anne Frank, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Bob Dylan, whose lyrics to the 1965 song “Like a Rolling Stone” are reproduced in full: “Most readers might not regard Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ as a ‘Jewish song,’ but its new voice, provocative and confrontational, evoked the defiance and disorientation that an entire generation was feeling,” note the editors. Less-famous writers also weigh in, such as those who wrote letters from the Westerbork transit camp during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Portions on visual culture include the architecture of Odessa-born Morris Lapidus and a photo by American Jewish photographer Rebecca Lepkoff, who documented New York City’s changing Lower East Side. At more than 1,000 pages, the work is certainly not a light read. Some material proves quite dense, such as extracts from Jacob Neusner’s There We Sat Down: Talmudic Judaism in the Making(1971), or may only appeal to a narrow audience, as with a discussion of Israeli sculpture. Still, it tackles an immense amount of information in often intriguing ways, as when novelist and screenwriter William Goldman writes of the conflict between Jews and Gentiles during his youth in prewar London with noteworthy grace, and the cover of the first issue of Captain America from 1941 reminds readers exactly how the hero, and his creators, felt about Adolf Hitler. It’s a weighty collection, to be sure, but one that’s consistently engaging.
An edifying and diverse survey of 20th-century Jewish life.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-18853-0
Page Count: 1088
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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