Could Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), the Enlightenment Jewishphilosopher and originator of the Bi’ur (a translation of the Bibleinto German in Hebrew characters), have seen what a Galician-bornJewish artist used for the frontispiece of an illustrated Bible atthe beginning of the twentieth century, he would certainly havebeen shocked and uncomfortable. But whether Ephraim Moses Lilien(1874–1925) was out to stun his audience or was just deeplyengrossed in the art nouveau style is at present of littlesignificance. However, by placing the renowned thinker alongsidethe less-known, erstwhile Zionist artist, we get a fuller view ofthe cultural transformation of West and Central European Jewryduring a century and a half. Jewish sensibilities and concerns wereradically transposed as the engagement with a panoply of culturalorientations superseded earlier pinnacles of Jewish integration,such as Muslim Spain. Even the Bible, the Old Testament, thetouchstone of Judaism, would be refracted and refashioned in am

Wars do not fully end when the shooting stops. As G. KurtPiehler reveals in this book, after every conflict from theRevolution to the Persian Gulf War, Americans have argued about howand for what deeds and heroes wars should be remembered. Drawing on sources ranging from government documents toEmbalmer's Monthly, Piehler recounts efforts to commemorate wars byerecting monuments, designating holidays, forming veterans'organizations, and establishing national cemetaries. The federalgovernment, he contends, initially sidestepped funding formemorials, thereby leaving the determination of how and whom tohonor in the hands of those with ready money—and those whoresponded to them. In one instance, monuments to “Yankee heroes”erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution were counteredby immigrant groups, who added such figures as Casimir Pulaski andThaddeus Kosciusko to the record of the war. Piehler argues thatthe conflict between these groups is emblematic of the ongoingreinterpretation of

In this gripping memoir, the daughter of a man who conspiredto assassinate Hitler tells the story of three generations of herfamily and offers unparalleled insight into the German experiencein the last century. On August 15, 1944, Major Hans Georg Klamroth was tried fortreason for his part in the July Plot to kill Hitler. Eleven dayslater, he was executed. His youngest daughter, Wibke Bruhns, wassix years old. Decades later, watching a documentary about theevents of July 20, she saw images of her father in court suddenlyappear on-screen. “I stare at this man with the empty face. I don'tknow him. But I can see myself in him.” How could her familysuccumb to Nazi sympathies? And what made her father finallyrenounce Hitler?

Robert V. Brulle, who flew seventy ground support missionswith the 366th Fighter Group, links his daily experiences in thecockpit not only with the battles in which he participated but alsowith events in the wider European theater. Combining anecdotes fromhis personal diary, research in US and German records, andinterviews with participants from both sides, Brulle details acombat career that began just after D-Day, when he flew columncover for Allied troops as they chased the German military out ofFrance. He then describes the brutal, six-week Hürtgen Forestcampaign, during which his fighter group lost 15 pilots and 18aircraft. He also tells how the otherwise bitterly fought Battle ofthe Bulge provided the 366th with an opportunity to successfullyengage 60 Luftwaffe airplanes in a dogfight directly over theirairfield. Angels Zero combines both personal and historical detail tovividly re-create a lesser-known aspect of the air war inEurope.

Paul Kriwaczek begins this illuminating and immenselypleasurable chronicle of Yiddish civilization during the Romanempire, when Jewish culture first spread to Europe. We see theburgeoning exile population disperse, as its notable diplomats,artists and thinkers make their mark in far-flung cities and founda self-governing Yiddish world. By its late-medieval heyday, thiseconomically successful, intellectually adventurous, and self-awaresociety stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Kriwaczektraces, too, the slow decline of Yiddish culture in Europe andRussia, and highlights fresh offshoots in the New World.Combiningfamily anecdote, travelogue, original research, and a keenunderstanding of Yiddish art and literature, Kriwaczek gives us anexceptional portrait of a culture which, though nearlyextinguished, has an influential radiance still.

An hour by hour account of the largest and most brutal assaultever conducted by the Marine Corps.

Hailed as the father of today’s elite special forces, RobertRogers was not only a wilderness warrior but North America’s firstnoteworthy playwright and authentic celebrity. In a rivetingbiography, John F. Ross reconstructs the extraordinary achievementsof this fearless and inspiring leader whose exploits in the earlyNew England wilderness read like those of an action hero and whoseinnovative principles of unconventional warfare are still usedtoday.

With a masterful eye for the telling detail, Klein vividlyrecounts the period from the election of Abraham Lincoln to theshelling of Fort Sumter. of photos. 2 maps.

Autobiography of a People is an insightfully assembledanthology of eyewitness accounts that traces the history of theAfrican American experience. From the Middle Passage to theMillion Man March, editor Herb Boyd has culled a diverse range ofvoices, both famous and ordinary, to creat a unique and compellinghistorical portrait: Benjamin Banneker on Thomas JeffersonOld Elizabeth on spreadingthe Word Frederick Douglass on life in the North W.E.B. Du Bois on theTalented Tenth Matthew Henson on reaching the North Pole Harriot Jacobs onrunning away James Cameron on escaping a mob lynichingAlvin Ailey on the worldof dance Langston Hughes on the Harlem Renaissance Curtis Morriw on theKorean War Max ROach on "jazz" as a four-letter wordLL Cool J on rap Mary Church Terrell on the Chicago World's FairRev. Bernice Kingon the future of Black America And many others

At a time when the Middle East has come closer to achievingpeace than ever before, eminent Israeli historian Benny Morrisexplodes the myths cherished by both sides to present an epichistory of Zionist-Arab relations over the past 120 years. Tracing the roots of political Zionism back to the pogroms ofRussia and the Dreyfus Affair, Morris describes the gradual influxof Jewish settlers into Palestine and the impact they had on theArab population. Following the Holocaust, the first Arab-Israeliwar of 1948 resulted in the establishment of the State of Israel,but it also shattered Palestinian Arab society and gave rise to amassive refugee problem. Morris offers distinctive accounts of eachof the subsequent Israeli-Arab wars and details the sporadic peaceefforts in between, culminating in the peace process initiated bythe Rabin Government. In a new afterword to the Vintage edition, heexamines Ehud Barak’s leadership, the death of President Assad ofSyria, and Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, and the recent re

A poignant, powerful distillation of the Holocaust experience from the internationally acclaimed writer and Nobel laureate. In his first book, Night, Elie Wiesel described his concentration camp experience, but he has rarely written directly about the Holocaust since then. Now, as the last generation of survivors is passing and a new generation must be introduced to mankind s darkest hour, Wiesel sums up the most important aspects of Hitler s years in power and provides a fitting memorial to those who suffered and perished. He writes about the creation of the Third Reich, Western acquiescence, the gas chambers, and memory. He criticizes Churchill and Roosevelt for what they knew and ignored, and he praises little-known Jewish heroes. Augmenting Wiesel s text are testimonies from survivors, who recall, among other moments and events: the establishment of the Nurembourg Laws, Kristallnacht, transport to the camps, and liberation. With this book richly illustrated with 45 photographs from the U.S. Holocaust M

The experience of war has affected every generation in thetwentieth and twenty-first centuries, and every soldier has a storyto tell. Since the year 2000, the Veteran's History Project, a newpermanent department of the Library of Congress, has beencollecting and preserving the memories of veterans. In addition tomore than 50,000 recorded oral histories, the Veteran's HistoryProject has amassed thousands of letters, photographs, scrapbooks,and invaluable mementos from nearly a century of warfare. In the first book to showcase the richness and depth of thiscollection, Voices of War tells a compelling, emotional, history ofthe experience of war, weaving together veterans' stories from inWorld Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf. Thestories are organized thematically into sections-from signing up tocoming home, generations of veterans recall individual experiencesthat together tell the extraordinary story of America at war.Letters, photographs, sketches and paintings enrich the compellingoral hi

This is the definitive report on Fragments, BinjaminWilkomirski's invented "memoir" of a childhood spent inconcentration camps, which created international turmoil. In 1995 Fragments, a memoir by a Swiss musician named BinjaminWilkomirski, was published in Germany. Hailed by critics, who compared it with themasterpieces of Primo Levi and Anne Frank, the book received majorprizes and was translated into nine languages. The English-languageedition was published by Schocken in 1996. In Fragments,Wilkomirski described in heartwrenching detail how as a small childhe survived internment in Majdanek and Birkenau and was eventuallysmuggled into Switzerland at the war's end. But three years after the book was first published, articlesbegan to appear that questioned its authenticity and the author'sclaim that he was a Holocaust survivor. Stefan Maechler, aSwiss historian and expert on anti-Semitism and Switzerland's treatmentof refugees during and after World War II, was commissioned onbe

In See America First, Marguerite Shaffer chronicles the birthof modern American tourism between 1880 and 1940, linking tourismto the simultaneous growth of national transportation systems,print media, a national market, and a middle class with money andtime to spend on leisure. Focusing on the See America First sloganand idea employed at different times by railroads, guidebookpublishers, Western boosters, and Good Roads advocates, shedescribes both the modern marketing strategies used to promotetourism and the messages of patriotism and loyalty embedded in thetourist experience. She shows how tourists as consumersparticipated in the search for a national identity that couldassuage their anxieties about American society and culture. Generously illustrated with images from advertisements,guidebooks, and travelogues, See America First demonstrates thatthe promotion of tourist landscapes and the consumption of touristexperiences were central to the development of an Americanidentity.