Vivid memoirs by veteran historian Laqueur (Stalin, 1990, etc.), who witnessed the era of Adolf Hitler, the founding of Israel, and much more. Laqueur distinguishes himself here for his lack of animus and for his refusal to judge Germany by the actions of one insane decade. His description of his hometown of Breslau is masterful, with details of a middle-class Jewish childhood etched with quiet, spare writing that evokes the very smells of the place. Laqueur explores the town's ongoing German/Polish identity crisis and places it in the cultural/historic continuum. He makes history come alive—from the Wandervogel spirit of German youth to the deceptive gradualness with which the Nazis altered the local culture, to the dedication of the Jewish youth groups that Laqueur was involved in and helped lead. The author, who by 1938 had moved to Palestine (where he finds the actions of the British military mostly decent), portrays with finesse the primitive, uncomfortable kibbutz that he lived on and irritably patrolled on horseback. He shows with real power the hellish Mideast ferment that followed WW II, with refugees laying their bodies down and living on ships and in camps not much better than the ones many had left behind in Germany. Laqueur—calm, canny, humane, and willing to say the unpopular thing—stands here as a highly credible witness to history. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1993
ISBN: 0-684-19421-X
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992
The story of an Israeli Jew's experiences as a mole inside Germany's radical right. In September 1992 Svoray was an out-of-work fortune hunter and sometimes journalist searching Germany for diamonds stashed and then lost by an American GI 37 years before. By accident, this quixotic hunt led Svoray to an aging neo-Nazi who took a liking to him and became his conduit to the German far right: unrepentant Nazis from the Third Reich, murderous young skinheads, and modern right-wing ideologues and politicians. Svoray forgot the diamonds and became an investigator for the Los Angelesbased Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization established to combat anti- Semitism. Somehow, the neo-Nazis failed to penetrate Svoray's flimsy cover as a reporter for a nonexistent right-wing American publication and an advance man for a wealthy American looking to contribute to neo-Nazi movements. Further, Svoray managed to talk his way into right-wing strongholds in heavily accented English. Svoray and Taylor (A Necessary End, p. 131) tell the story of the Israeli's 18 months among the neo-Nazis. It is a fascinating, frightening, and revealing account, but one that is also badly flawed by the decision to write the book in the third person with Svoray as the hero/protagonist. The device turns In Hitler's Shadow into a tale of high adventure, complete with narrow escapes and moments of high danger, rather than investigative journalism. Svoray gathered important information about a movement that many critics charge has been paid insufficient attention by the German government, and the wide news coverage given Svoray's investigation may have contributed to Germany's recent crackdowns against neo- Nazis. (HBO will bradcast a tie-in movie in 1995.) An imperfect but riveting inside view of Germany's neo-Nazi movement and the dangers it presents. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 6, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-47284-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A fine summation of O’Connor’s long scholarly career that should be of wide interest to students of American history and...
A learned and literate history of the Athens of America.
O’Connor (Civil War Boston, 1997, etc.) offers a straightforward narrative of the city from its founding in the 17th century to the present. The organization is chronological, although O’Connor occasionally skips about to treat important themes such as religion and race and ethnicity. The somewhat old-fashioned year-by-year presentation is by no means stodgy, for the author believes that the history of Boston can be seen as one of conflict—whether between Separatists and Anglicans, Protestants and Irish Catholics, or blacks and whites. In every era, such conflicts have spilled out beyond Boston’s confines to influence the nation as a whole. “The basic tenets of Puritanism,” the author notes, “may have been confined to a relatively tiny segment of the New England seacoast during the first half of the 17th century, but they were to have an impact on American society and culture that would extend far beyond their immediate geographical surroundings.” O’Connor gives attention to topics that have received too little attention in standard histories, including the curious flowering of proto-hippie freethinking sects and cults in the 1820s and ’30s—a many-faceted movement, he notes, that coalesced in abolitionism, much to the chagrin of the city’s conservative ruling class. He downplays the role of “great men” (focusing instead on larger issues of race and class), and he notes that the city’s neighborhoods (and, thanks to busing, its schools) are now populated by a variety of minority groups who constitute a “minority majority” and reflect decades of “white flight” from the urban center.
A fine summation of O’Connor’s long scholarly career that should be of wide interest to students of American history and social issues.Pub Date: May 4, 2001
ISBN: 1-55553-474-0
Page Count: 291
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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