An immense but exceedingly insightful look at a period in Jewish culture between the wars.
This eighth installment in an extensive series on Jewish culture and history covers the years 1918 to 1939.
As with the previous works in this series, this book, edited by Endelman and Gitelman, professors of Jewish history and studies, respectively, at the University of Michigan, is divided into discrete sections (“Memoir and Reportage,” “Poetry,” and so on), with individual pieces within each featuring short biographies of their creators, such as H. Leivick, author of the 1921 play The Golem, who fled from Belorussia to the United States in 1913. Over the course of more than 1,000 pages, the editors cover a remarkably wide range of material: There are thoughts from David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel; a photo from 1920s Tel Aviv by Russian-born photographer Avraham Soskin; and a Soviet anti-religion propaganda poster with Hebrew text, aimed specifically at Jewish people. There are examinations of everything from paganism in the Bible to problematic depictions of Jewish people in the works of famous artists, as when writer Maurice Samuel asked in 1932, “Why should Aldous Huxley have Richard Greenow, the hero of the story by that name, remark à propos of nothing at all, that he is quite sure that Jews stink?” As stated in the introduction, the preference for this anthology was for longer pieces; although this allows for deeper investigations of dense topics, such as “Jewish Agricultural Colonization in Old Russia,” it also encompasses works that go in unexpected directions, such as an excerpt from French author Maurice Sachs’ revealing 1960 memoir, Witches’ Sabbath. It is in these in-depth examinations that the book shines; overall, the material may be vast, but its individual components also speak volumes.
An immense but exceedingly insightful look at a period in Jewish culture between the wars.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-13552-7
Page Count: 1384
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
HISTORY | MODERN | JEWISH | GENERAL HISTORY
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.
A timely distilled version of the powerful report on racism in the U.S.
Created by Lyndon Johnson’s executive order in 1967, the Kerner Commission was convened in response to inner-city riots in cities like Newark and Detroit, and its findings have renewed relevance in the wake of the George Floyd verdict and other recent police brutality cases. The report, named for Otto Kerner, the chairman of the commission and then governor of Illinois, explored the systemic reasons why an “apocalyptic fury” broke out that summer even in the wake of the passage of significant civil rights and voting acts—a response with striking echoes in recent events across the country. In this edited and contextualized version, New Yorker staff writer Cobb, with the assistance of Guariglia, capably demonstrates the continued relevance and prescience of the commission’s findings on institutionalized discriminatory policies in housing, education, employment, and the media. The commission was not the first to address racial violence in the century, and it would not be the last, but the bipartisan group of 11 members—including two Blacks and one woman—was impressively thorough in its investigation of the complex overarching social and economic issues at play. “The members were not seeking to understand a singular incident of disorder,” writes Cobb, “but the phenomenon of rioting itself.” Johnson wanted to know what happened, why it happened, and what could be done so it doesn’t happen “again and again.” Of course, it has happened again and again, and many of the report’s recommendations remain unimplemented. This version of the landmark report features a superb introduction by Cobb and a closing section of frequently asked questions—e.g., “How come nothing has been done about these problems?” The book contains plenty of fodder for crucial national conversations and many excellent ideas for much-needed reforms that could be put into place now.
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-892-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
In this meticulously detailed and evocative book, history comes alive, and it isn’t pretty.
A meditation on Austria’s capitulation to the Nazis. The book won the 2017 Prix Goncourt.
Vuillard (Sorrow of the Earth: Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and the Tragedy of Show Business, 2017, etc.) is also a filmmaker, and these episodic vignettes have a cinematic quality to them. “The play is about to begin,” he writes on the first page, “but the curtain won’t rise….Even though the twentieth of February 1933 was not just any other day, most people spent the morning grinding away, immersed in the great, decent fallacy of work, with its small gestures that enfold a silent, conventional truth and reduce the entire epic of our lives to a diligent pantomime.” Having established his command of tone, the author proceeds through devastating character portraits of Hitler and Goebbels, who seduced and bullied their appeasers into believing that short-term accommodations would pay long-term dividends. The cold calculations of Austria’s captains of industries and the pathetic negotiations of leaders who knew that their protestations were mainly for show suggest the complicated complicity of a country where young women screamed for Hitler as if he were a teen idol. “The bride was willing; this was no rape, as some have claimed, but a proper wedding,” writes Vuillard. Yet the consummation was by no means as smoothly triumphant as the Nazi newsreels have depicted. The army’s entry into Austria was less a blitzkrieg than a mechanical breakdown, one that found Hitler stalled behind the tanks that refused to move as those prepared to hail his emergence wondered what had happened. “For it wasn’t only a few isolated tanks that had broken down,” writes the author, “not just the occasional armored truck—no, it was the vast majority of the great German army, and the road was now entirely blocked. It was like a slapstick comedy!” In the aftermath, some of those most responsible for Austria’s fall faced death by hanging, but at least one received an American professorship.
In this meticulously detailed and evocative book, history comes alive, and it isn’t pretty.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59051-969-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Other Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
GENERAL HISTORY | MODERN | WORLD | MILITARY | HISTORY
BOOK REVIEW
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