Author: Modris Eksteins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618082315
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Part history, part autobiography, Eksteins relates the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after World War II through personal stories from his family. Photos and map.
Walking Since Daybreak
Author: Modris Eksteins
Publisher: London : Papermac
ISBN: 9780333766217
Category : Baltic States
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Part history and part autobiography, 'Walking Since Daybreak' tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after World War II. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Ekstein's family members lend an intimate dimensio
Publisher: London : Papermac
ISBN: 9780333766217
Category : Baltic States
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Part history and part autobiography, 'Walking Since Daybreak' tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after World War II. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Ekstein's family members lend an intimate dimensio
Walking Since Daybreak
Author: Modris Eksteins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547349629
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 379
Book Description
An account of one family’s displacement and the tragic history of twentieth-century Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia: “Deeply moving.” —Los Angeles Times Winner of the Pearson Prize for Nonfiction The immense cataclysm of World War II devastated the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, sending many of their inhabitants to the ends of the earth. Part history, part autobiography, Walking Since Daybreak tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after the war. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins’s family members lend an intimate dimension to this vast narrative of those who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea. In the tradition of books that redefine our historical understanding, such as Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages and Burckhardt’s The Renaissance in Italy, Eksteins’s narrative is a haunting portrait of national loss and the struggle of a displaced family caught in the maw of history. “An authoritative and moving mélange . . . of historical analysis, family legend, and memoir.” —The Boston Globe “Eksteins has astutely and thrillingly braided together the tortured history of modern Latvia, his own personal story of being born there in 1943 . . . and the fate of his family as they (and countless millions) made their way to and through the refugee camps of postwar Europe.” —The Washington Post Book World “This unconventional account of the fate of the Baltic nations is also an important reassessment of WWII and its outcome . . . the pivotal character is Eksteins’s maternal great-grandmother Grieta. The tale of this Latvian chambermaid, made pregnant and then rejected by her Baltic-German baron, serves as a mirror of Latvian-German relations over the centuries. In addition, the family history opens up the subject of displacement . . . and the struggle and hope of the immigrant experience.” —Kirkus Reviews
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547349629
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 379
Book Description
An account of one family’s displacement and the tragic history of twentieth-century Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia: “Deeply moving.” —Los Angeles Times Winner of the Pearson Prize for Nonfiction The immense cataclysm of World War II devastated the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, sending many of their inhabitants to the ends of the earth. Part history, part autobiography, Walking Since Daybreak tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after the war. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins’s family members lend an intimate dimension to this vast narrative of those who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea. In the tradition of books that redefine our historical understanding, such as Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages and Burckhardt’s The Renaissance in Italy, Eksteins’s narrative is a haunting portrait of national loss and the struggle of a displaced family caught in the maw of history. “An authoritative and moving mélange . . . of historical analysis, family legend, and memoir.” —The Boston Globe “Eksteins has astutely and thrillingly braided together the tortured history of modern Latvia, his own personal story of being born there in 1943 . . . and the fate of his family as they (and countless millions) made their way to and through the refugee camps of postwar Europe.” —The Washington Post Book World “This unconventional account of the fate of the Baltic nations is also an important reassessment of WWII and its outcome . . . the pivotal character is Eksteins’s maternal great-grandmother Grieta. The tale of this Latvian chambermaid, made pregnant and then rejected by her Baltic-German baron, serves as a mirror of Latvian-German relations over the centuries. In addition, the family history opens up the subject of displacement . . . and the struggle and hope of the immigrant experience.” —Kirkus Reviews
Solar Dance
Author: Modris Eksteins
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674064941
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Main description: In Modris Eksteins's hands, the interlocking stories of Vincent van Gogh and art dealer Otto Wacker reveal the origins of the fundamental uncertainty that is the hallmark of the modern era. Through the lens of Wacker's sensational 1932 trial in Berlin for selling fake Van Goghs, Eksteins offers a unique narrative of Weimar Germany, the rise of Hitler, and the replacement of nineteenth-century certitude with twentieth-century doubt. Berlin after the Great War was a magnet for art and transgression. Among those it attracted was Otto Wacker, a young gay dancer turned art impresario. His sale of thirty-three forged Van Goghs and the ensuing scandal gave Van Gogh's work unprecedented commercial value. It also called into question a world of defined values and standards that had already begun to erode during the war. Van Gogh emerged posthumously as a hero who rejected organized religion and other suspect sources of authority in favor of art. Self-pitying Germans saw in his biography a series of triumphs-over defeat, poverty, and meaninglessness-that spoke to them directly. Eksteins shows how the collapsing Weimar Republic that made Van Gogh famous and gave Wacker an opportunity for reinvention propelled a third misfit into the spotlight. Taking advantage of the void left by a gutted belief system, Hitler gained power by fashioning myths of mastery. Filled with characters who delight and frighten, Solar Dance merges cultural and political history to show how upheavals of the early twentieth century gave rise to a search for authenticity and purpose.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674064941
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Main description: In Modris Eksteins's hands, the interlocking stories of Vincent van Gogh and art dealer Otto Wacker reveal the origins of the fundamental uncertainty that is the hallmark of the modern era. Through the lens of Wacker's sensational 1932 trial in Berlin for selling fake Van Goghs, Eksteins offers a unique narrative of Weimar Germany, the rise of Hitler, and the replacement of nineteenth-century certitude with twentieth-century doubt. Berlin after the Great War was a magnet for art and transgression. Among those it attracted was Otto Wacker, a young gay dancer turned art impresario. His sale of thirty-three forged Van Goghs and the ensuing scandal gave Van Gogh's work unprecedented commercial value. It also called into question a world of defined values and standards that had already begun to erode during the war. Van Gogh emerged posthumously as a hero who rejected organized religion and other suspect sources of authority in favor of art. Self-pitying Germans saw in his biography a series of triumphs-over defeat, poverty, and meaninglessness-that spoke to them directly. Eksteins shows how the collapsing Weimar Republic that made Van Gogh famous and gave Wacker an opportunity for reinvention propelled a third misfit into the spotlight. Taking advantage of the void left by a gutted belief system, Hitler gained power by fashioning myths of mastery. Filled with characters who delight and frighten, Solar Dance merges cultural and political history to show how upheavals of the early twentieth century gave rise to a search for authenticity and purpose.
Daybreak
Author: Brian Ralph
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 1770462309
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
The cult classic zombie graphic novel: now a Netflix original series! You wake up in the rubble and see a ragged, desperate one-armed man greeting you. He takes you underground to a safe space, feeds you, offers you a place to sleep, and then announces that he’ll take the first watch. It’s not long before the peril of the jagged landscape has located you and your new-found protector and is scratching at the door. What transpires is a moment-to-moment struggle for survival-The Road meets Dawn of the Dead. Daybreak is seen through the eyes of a silent observer as he runs from the shadows of the imminent zombie threat. Brian Ralph slowly builds the tension of the zombies on the periphery, letting the threat-rather than the actual carnage-be the driving force. The post-apocalyptic backdrop features tangles of rocks, lumber, I beams, and overturned cars that are characters in and of themselves. Drawing inspiration from horror movies, television, and first-person shooter video games, Daybreak departs from zombie genre in both content and format, achieving a living-dead masterwork of literary proportions. When released in 2011, Daybreak was a critical success, a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens, and a TLA Maverick Graphic Novel. Now for the first time, Daybreak is being adapted into a Netflix Original series, executive produced by Aron Eli Coleite (Star Trek: Discovery, Heroes), Brad Peyton (Frontier, Rampage), and Jeff Fierson (Frontier, Rampage), starring Matthew Broderick. Read the book before it hits the small screen this fall!
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 1770462309
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
The cult classic zombie graphic novel: now a Netflix original series! You wake up in the rubble and see a ragged, desperate one-armed man greeting you. He takes you underground to a safe space, feeds you, offers you a place to sleep, and then announces that he’ll take the first watch. It’s not long before the peril of the jagged landscape has located you and your new-found protector and is scratching at the door. What transpires is a moment-to-moment struggle for survival-The Road meets Dawn of the Dead. Daybreak is seen through the eyes of a silent observer as he runs from the shadows of the imminent zombie threat. Brian Ralph slowly builds the tension of the zombies on the periphery, letting the threat-rather than the actual carnage-be the driving force. The post-apocalyptic backdrop features tangles of rocks, lumber, I beams, and overturned cars that are characters in and of themselves. Drawing inspiration from horror movies, television, and first-person shooter video games, Daybreak departs from zombie genre in both content and format, achieving a living-dead masterwork of literary proportions. When released in 2011, Daybreak was a critical success, a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens, and a TLA Maverick Graphic Novel. Now for the first time, Daybreak is being adapted into a Netflix Original series, executive produced by Aron Eli Coleite (Star Trek: Discovery, Heroes), Brad Peyton (Frontier, Rampage), and Jeff Fierson (Frontier, Rampage), starring Matthew Broderick. Read the book before it hits the small screen this fall!
Daybreak
Author: Shelley Shepard Gray
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062204416
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In this close-knit Amish family, nothing is as perfect as it seems . . . When Viola Keim starts working at a nearby Mennonite retirement home, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with resident Atle, whose only living relative, son Edward, is living as a missionary in Nicaragua. Viola understands the importance of mission work, but she can't imagine leaving her father in the hands of strangers. Even though her family is New Order Amish, it's not the Amish way, and though she doesn't know Ed, she judges him for abandoning his father. But when Ed surprises his father with a visit, Viola and Ed both discover an attraction they never expected. Despite her feelings, choosing Ed would mean moving to a far-off country and leaving her family behind. She can't do that. Her twin sister, Elsie, is going blind and will need someone to care for her all her life. Her family is reeling with the recent discovery that her grandmother hid her past as an Englischer. Her father seems forgetful and distracted—and to be harboring some secrets of his own. Does Viola dare leave them all behind and forge her own life? Or will family ties mean her one chance at love slips away?
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062204416
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In this close-knit Amish family, nothing is as perfect as it seems . . . When Viola Keim starts working at a nearby Mennonite retirement home, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with resident Atle, whose only living relative, son Edward, is living as a missionary in Nicaragua. Viola understands the importance of mission work, but she can't imagine leaving her father in the hands of strangers. Even though her family is New Order Amish, it's not the Amish way, and though she doesn't know Ed, she judges him for abandoning his father. But when Ed surprises his father with a visit, Viola and Ed both discover an attraction they never expected. Despite her feelings, choosing Ed would mean moving to a far-off country and leaving her family behind. She can't do that. Her twin sister, Elsie, is going blind and will need someone to care for her all her life. Her family is reeling with the recent discovery that her grandmother hid her past as an Englischer. Her father seems forgetful and distracted—and to be harboring some secrets of his own. Does Viola dare leave them all behind and forge her own life? Or will family ties mean her one chance at love slips away?
Hope and Memory
Author: Tzvetan Todorov
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691171424
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Both a political history and a moral critique of the twentieth century, this is a personal and impassioned book from one of Europe's most outstanding intellectuals. Identifying totalitarianism as the major innovation of the twentieth century, Tzvetan Todorov examines the struggle between this system and democracy and its effects on human life and consciousness. Totalitarianism managed to impose itself because, more than any other political system, it played on people's need for the absolute: it fed their hope to endow life with meaning by taking part in the construction of a paradise on earth. As a result, millions of people lost their lives in the name of a higher good. While democracy eventually won the struggle against totalitarianism in much of the world, democracy itself is not immune to the pitfall of do-goodery: moral correctness at home and atomic or "humanitarian" bombs abroad. Todorov explores the history of the past century not only by analyzing its spectacular political conflicts but also by offering moving profiles of several individuals who, at great personal cost, resisted the strictures of the communist and Nazi regimes. Some--Margarete Buber-Neumann, David Rousset, Primo Levi, and Germaine Tillion--were deported to concentration camps. Others--Vasily Grossman and Romain Gary--fought courageously in World War II. All became exemplary witnesses who described with great lucidity and humanity what they had endured. This book preserves the memory of the past as we move into the twenty-first century--arguing eloquently that we must place the past at the service of a just future.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691171424
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Both a political history and a moral critique of the twentieth century, this is a personal and impassioned book from one of Europe's most outstanding intellectuals. Identifying totalitarianism as the major innovation of the twentieth century, Tzvetan Todorov examines the struggle between this system and democracy and its effects on human life and consciousness. Totalitarianism managed to impose itself because, more than any other political system, it played on people's need for the absolute: it fed their hope to endow life with meaning by taking part in the construction of a paradise on earth. As a result, millions of people lost their lives in the name of a higher good. While democracy eventually won the struggle against totalitarianism in much of the world, democracy itself is not immune to the pitfall of do-goodery: moral correctness at home and atomic or "humanitarian" bombs abroad. Todorov explores the history of the past century not only by analyzing its spectacular political conflicts but also by offering moving profiles of several individuals who, at great personal cost, resisted the strictures of the communist and Nazi regimes. Some--Margarete Buber-Neumann, David Rousset, Primo Levi, and Germaine Tillion--were deported to concentration camps. Others--Vasily Grossman and Romain Gary--fought courageously in World War II. All became exemplary witnesses who described with great lucidity and humanity what they had endured. This book preserves the memory of the past as we move into the twenty-first century--arguing eloquently that we must place the past at the service of a just future.
The Way of the World
Author: Nicolas Bouvier
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173228
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Bouvier writes, “You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making—or unmaking—you.”
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173228
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Bouvier writes, “You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making—or unmaking—you.”
Darkness Before Daybreak
Author: Hans Lucht
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520270711
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
“Lucht’s engaging prose style and keen ethnographic eye provide for a captivating narrative on a form of population movement often in the news but rarely if ever really understood.” --Jeffrey E. Cole, author with Sally Booth of Dirty Work: Immigrants in Domestic Service, Agriculture, and Prostitution in Sicily. “Few ethnographers manage to integrate in-depth multi-sited fieldwork, enthralling narrative and innovative theory as well as Hans Lucht does in this study of existential reciprocity among Ghanaian fishermen forced by dwindling catches to embark on hazardous migrations to Europe in search of the wherewithall of life. In Lucht's capable hands, these stories become an allegory of our times.” --Michael Jackson, author of Life Within Limits: Well-Being in a World of Want. "An original, comprehensive, and skilled study, Darkness before Daybreak provides the reader with a real sense of the quality and meaning of existence in Ghana and in Naples, while providing enough historical and political/economic context to permit a nuanced critical analysis of globalization theory." --Peter Schneider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, and author with Jane Schneider of Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520270711
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
“Lucht’s engaging prose style and keen ethnographic eye provide for a captivating narrative on a form of population movement often in the news but rarely if ever really understood.” --Jeffrey E. Cole, author with Sally Booth of Dirty Work: Immigrants in Domestic Service, Agriculture, and Prostitution in Sicily. “Few ethnographers manage to integrate in-depth multi-sited fieldwork, enthralling narrative and innovative theory as well as Hans Lucht does in this study of existential reciprocity among Ghanaian fishermen forced by dwindling catches to embark on hazardous migrations to Europe in search of the wherewithall of life. In Lucht's capable hands, these stories become an allegory of our times.” --Michael Jackson, author of Life Within Limits: Well-Being in a World of Want. "An original, comprehensive, and skilled study, Darkness before Daybreak provides the reader with a real sense of the quality and meaning of existence in Ghana and in Naples, while providing enough historical and political/economic context to permit a nuanced critical analysis of globalization theory." --Peter Schneider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, and author with Jane Schneider of Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo.