History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements

Average customer rating:

An eye-opener, with a few typos
Well argued opinions
We will conquer you!
IMPORTANT BOOK FOR THE 22 ND CENTURY
Eye-opening

The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements
Kevin MacDonald
Manufacturer: 1st Books Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0759672229

Book Description

MacDonald provides a theoretical analysis and review of data on the widespread tendency among certain highly influential, Jewish-dominated intellectual movements to develop radical critiques of gentile culture that are compatible with the continuity of Jewish identification. Particular attention is paid to Boasian anthropology, psychoanalysis, leftist political ideology and behavior, the Frankfurt School of Social Research, and the efforts to influence United States immigration policy.

Customer Reviews:

An eye-opener, with a few typos.......2007-09-06

In my country there are very few jews, apparently not even 10.000 in a population of 42.000.000, so it was very easy to grow up without being aware of their existence. However, they were very much present as I was growing up. The comic books heroes I idolized as a boy were mostly jewish creations: Superman (Siegel and Schuster), Batman (Kane), the Fantastic Four (Lee and Kirby), Spiderman (Lee and Ditko). So were one's favorite comedians, like the Marx Brothers or the 3 Stooges. And let's not even mention movies or saturday morning cartoons. As I grew up I became aware that many important thinkers and scientists were jewish, that many jews won Nobel prizes (49 so far in Medicine, 27 in Chemistry, 20 in Economics, 44 in Physics). Let's keep in mind that there are probably no more than 15 million jews. No one else can beat those numbers. I also learned that many were very rich. Peculiarly, it was also true that many jews had been at the forefront of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European offshoots, and that many also had been part of the counterculture, and not just in the USA. But anytime anyone said something that might be construed as disparaging of Jews, they presented a united front, and fought back. Jews appeared smarter, more motivated and more cohesive than anyone else. But many matters were hard to explain: how could jews be over-represented both among the plutocrats and the revolutionaries? It did seem like a Nazi slander to accuse them of both. Why was it that even as data supported the view that jews were smarter than others (i.e., Murray and Herrnstein), important jewish scientists wrote in opposition to this (i.e. Gould, Lewontin,Pinker)? And just why were there so many jews involved in progressive causes all over the world, such as contraception, abortion rights, black and minority rights and free immigration?

I had no answer to these questions until I read this book. MacDonald's thesis is as follows: human action is mostly defined by competition for scarce resources. In this competition, who's in one's group and who's not is a very important issue, because people are more likely to be altruistic towards those who belong rather than those who don't. Once people move beyond the extended families common to hunter-gatherers, the in-group will be defined by ethnicity, which in turn will mean race. People who are ethnically similar are more likely to be related than those who are dissimilar, and are also more likely to share genes. Hence, in-group solidarity is justified from an evolutionary advantage perspective. Through history, jews have been better than others are retaining their collective identity mainly through refusing absorption by other groups, a very difficult result to obtain during many millenia of various diasporae. This they have done by giving high priority to the survival of the jewish ethnicity, while attempting to prevent other groups achieving similar levels of collective action by delegitimizing their right to do so. The Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, the Greeks and the Romans tried to assimilate them, but without success. This was attempted later by the various European kingdoms (particularly the Spanish), the Russians and the Americans, who again failed. Each time the host society developed strong collectivistic views around ethnic categories the result was anti-semitism and persecution (Spain under Isabella and Ferdinand, Russia with the Czars and at the time of Kruschev and Brezhnev, Germany under Hitler, even the US during the "Red Scare" -1920s- and at the height of the Cold War -1950s-). The jewish reaction was to conceive and communicate highly compelling worldviews in which the categories of jewish v. gentile are weakened or where traditional rallying points such as Christianity or patriotism are dismantled (such as Communism or psychoanalisis), or where even the very existence of ethnic differentiations of any sort is rejected and all intergroup variations are attributed to environmental factors (such as in Boasian Antropology). Eventually even the possibility of universal concepts is rejected (as explicity argued by the Frankfurt School) and all reality is subject to corrosive criticism that leaves nothing standing (as in Derridian deconstructivism). MacDonald reviews extensively these intellectual movements and shows how they were led by individuals who thought of themselves as jews (mostly not as members of a religion, but of an ethnicity), and shows that they generally pursued a "party line", which was to preserve the right of jews to continue to exist and prosper as such, while denying other groups the right to oppose them, by delegitimizing and even by pathologizing them.

How did jews come to these behaviors? In this book MacDonald does not explain it, but he suggests that there was no need for some hidden cabal to establish and implement a plan. All that was required was strong ethnic identification along with the realization that a clever, powerful minority who refuses to be assimilated will attract antipathy from others and might eventually be harmed. Hence, the development of arguments that eliminate the legitimacy for such reaction would be a reasonable response. This might explain how jews can both be a very rich and powerful group (because they are more intelligent, highly motivated and capable of collective action than others) and also an enemy of the status quo (because it is a good strategy to weaken traditional institutions around which ethnocentric feelings have clustered in the past, such as Christianity, both protestant and catholic or patriotism). In any event, it is indisputable that jewish presence was paramount among early Russian Bolsheviks, among Eastern European communists, among early mentors of the civil rights movement, among proponents of unrestricted immigration, among countercultural heavyweights and among the radical intelligentsia. And it is also indisputable that jews are a leading force in media, finance and law. These are verifiable facts. That jewish leaders worked very hard to change the ethnic composition of several countries (such as the USA, Canada or Australia) is well-known because they themselves have said so, that they were successful is a fact, and that this has weakened the status (political, economic, cultural) of traditional WASP elites is indisputable. That the fragmentation of fairly homogeneous societies would be to be benefit of well-organized minorities able to to keep themselves apart is also very likely.

Particularly interesting to this reader was how the Frankfurt School pathologized the same attributes that make any group good at internal solidarity and external competition, such as a strong work ethic, identification with shared values and committed parenting. These traits among gentiles were seen as conducive to a fascist mindset, whereas among jews their legitimacy is taken for granted and never discussed. It was also fascinating to learn that jewish authors of published papers are much more likely to quote other jews rather than gentiles. I don't know if this is the case, but somebody should look it up because it is interesting. Further, according to MacDonald, neoconservatism is an attempt by former jewish radicals to influence American domestic and foreign policy to make it harmonize with jewish interests. This is not easy to refute and in fact recent authoritative books say so.

It is indeed possible to carry this arguments too far away and to fall into a conspiracy theory mindset. But MacDonald doesn't do so and he always grounds his opinions in the facts. Clearly, he believes that jews are too powerful, and that they are steering the US too far from its own interest as a country. But he merely describes the situation, he does not suggest ways to address it. He does fear that eventually this situation might lead to a resurgence of antisemitism (as has been seen in Europe) and ethnic strife, which he clearly believes are undesirable outcomes. Unfortunately, it seems to be the case that competition for scarce resources among jews and others (especially in the Mideast) is an important source of political instability and violence in today's world. Not the only one, but a significant one. While it is surely not the case that jews have caused events such as the Afghanistan and Iran wars, it is true that well-known people of that ethnic persuasion have been instrumental in the decisions leading to them, and that these actions benefit the situation of their co-religionists in Israel.

I don't know if the author's views are correct from a scientific viewpoint, but it is a compelling theory. It is consistent with observed facts and with actual human behavior, which is much more oriented to ethnic differentiation than to universal identification irrespective of efforts by many people. It also explains many things that otherwise would remain obscure. I do not think the book is anti-semitic, or conducive to anti-semitism, as some have said. It describes one group's strategies to pursue its own interests. That is surely legitimate, as it is legitimate to analyse it. While one must sympathise with jewish concerns about this type or arguments giving legitimacy to persecution and violence against them, surely people also owe a duty to the truth and are entitled to their own opinions. Silencing reasonable lines of enquiry with appeals to common interests or to historical catastrophes is just preaching to the choir. People who don't already buy into such arguments will not be moved by them. Instead of calling into question MacDonald's motivations, or the possible consequences of his books, those who disagree should show he is wrong, or dispute the facts he quotes.

I give the book 4 stars because it has a few irritating typos that shouldn't turn up in an academic book. "Principle" (fundamental) is not identical to "principal" (main). MP does not mean "Minister of Parliament" but "Member of Parliament" (this howler happens twice). And at the very end the author is confused on whether jews give between one quarter and a half of political contributions, or between a third and a half. Make up your mind, Dr. MacDonald, so that we might feel more comfortable believing you.

Well argued opinions.......2007-08-09

The author analyzes a select few of the major political and cultural movements having shaped Western political thought in the last century, among them marxism, multiculturalism and psychoanalysis. In my view the weakest link in MacDonald's attack on the proponents of these movements as being servants of a Jewish agenda is that he concludes thus because of their Jewish ethnicity. It appears as if he does not consider the possibility of that Freud, Marx (and others) and their Jewish followers developed and held the views they did, not because they were Jewish, but because these were the views they developed and held. I would be more careful than MacDonald is in attributing viewpoints to ethnicity just like that. Although MacDonald argues well, his views stand as _opinions_. During his testimony for David Irving the author professed being an agnostic in the case of the Holocaust: After having read this book, I would have to profess being an agnostic in the case he is making.

It is probably unfair to label this book anti-semitic. It would be more correct to say it is scepti-semitic.

The book is well worth reading.

We will conquer you!.......2007-05-24

Might as well give it up, we took over your culture by promoting socialism and immigration of non-white people. Well not including blacks of course. There were a goodly number of immigrants that came in from different places like China on the west coast in the 19th century, though I suppose they were needed at the time to build railroads and things. But then the real waves of immigration started with the Italians and the Irish in the second part of the 19th century, I guess you couldn't blame us Jews for that. The Irish were fleeing from the potato famine of course, the Italians from poverty -- but even though they were duly hated for seveal decades, and not considered really white or Europeans by those who lived there for a long time, at least they were Christian (well, Catholic, so sort of). The Jews really wanted to keep their cultural identity, good thing they didn't try to push it on non-Jews. But why did they need to push immigration so much? Maybe it was because they were so poor, despised and sometimes killed over there, that many wanted to come over here. Luckily the immigration policies that had brought swarms of immigrants of all kinds had tightened up by 1920, so that we weren't letting them all in anymore... if that hadn't happened, a lot more Jews would have come over fleeing the Holocaust. If they hadn't tightened those quotes, there'd be at least twice as many in the US by 1940!

What's really amazing, though, is how Jews managed to be at the forefront of Socialist and Communist movements, and at the same time were in charge of global capitalism and western finance. Thus they were both opposed to personal property, and the driving force behind it and the laws that enshrined it's preservation. How did Jews pull that off?

Read this book, it will certainly give you some ideas on how we kicked your butts.

IMPORTANT BOOK FOR THE 22 ND CENTURY.......2007-03-21

Amazon should be congratulated for having these books. With the rise of Anti Semitism, its important to be able to argue with historical facts and data.

congratulations amazon

Eye-opening.......2007-01-22

Professor Macdonald has written an eye-opening treatise on Jewish involvement in 20th century political movements. The book is entitled 'Culture of Critique' because many of these Jewish movements/organizations were formed to critique white Christian American institutions and beliefs. The basic premise of the book is that these Jewish organizations sought to make American more pluralistic and multicultural, while simultaneously maintaining their group solidarity. Through pschoanalysis, the Boasian school of anthropology, the New York intellectuals, advocating non-white immigration, communism, and other means, the Jews essentially broke the WASP establishment and displaced it with themselves. This was done in the name of combating anti-Semitism.

I once heard someone say that the Jewish people are inherently self-destructive. They were compared to the scorpion that rides the frog's back across the river, and then stings the frog when it gets across. Upon the frog asking the scorpion why it would have done this, the scorpion replies it is simply in its nature. It could help itself from stinging the frog. I constantly thought of this metaphor while reading this book. The Jewish people did not need to engage in this attack on the white Christian American establishment. They were relatively safe and prosperous in this country. However, they simply could not help themselves. It is just their nature.

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World

Average customer rating:

Why immigration is good for America
Budapest as the incubator of Greatness
Hungarians love their salami and their Magyars
OK, but...
Budapest's loss is the world's gain...

The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World
Kati Marton
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Eastern | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Hungary | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743261151

Book Description

In this ground-breaking book, acclaimed author Kati Marton brings to life an unknown chapter of World War II: the tale of nine men who grew up in Budapest's brief Golden Age, then, driven from Hungary by anti-Semitism, fled to the West, especially to the United States, and changed the world. These nine men, each celebrated for individual achievements, were actually part of a unique group who grew up in a time and place that will never come again. It is Marton's extraordinary achievement to trace what for a few dazzling years was common to all of them -- the magic air of Budapest -- and show how their separate lives and careers were, in fact, all shaped by Budapest's lively café life before the darkness closed in.

Marton follows the astonishing lives of four history-changing scientists, all just one step ahead of Hitler's terror state, who helped usher in the nuclear age and the computer (Edward Teller, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner); two major movie myth-makers (Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca, and Alexander Korda, who produced The Third Man); two immortal photographers (Robert Capa and Andre Kertesz); and one seminal writer (Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon).

Marton follows these brilliant products of Budapest's Golden Age as they flee fascism in the 1920s and 1930s en route to sanctuary -- and immortality. As the scientists labor in the secret city of Los Alamos in the race to build the atom bomb, Koestler, once a communist agent imprisoned by Franco, writes the most important anticommunist novel of the century. Capa, the first photographer to go ashore on D-Day, later romances Ingrid Bergman and is acknowledged as the world's greatest war photographer before his tragic death in Vietnam. Curtiz not only gives us Casablanca, consistently voted the greatest romantic movie ever made, but also discovers Doris Day and directs James Cagney in the quintessential patriotic film, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Ultimately, The Great Escape is an American story and an important, previously untold chapter of the tumultuous last century. Yet it is also a poignant story -- in the words of the great historian Fritz Stern, "an evocation of genius in exile . . . an instructive, moving delight." An epilogue relates the journey into exile of three members of the next generation of Budapest exiles: financier-philanthropist George Soros, Intel founder Andy Grove, and 2002 Nobel laureate in literature Imre Kertesz.

Customer Reviews:

Why immigration is good for America.......2007-09-06

Most of the nine Hungarian Jews discussed in this book emmigrated to America and made outstanding contributions to science, mathematics, information technology, and films. Hungary, during its short life of freedom, served as an incubator for intellecutual curiosity. The rise of Nazism forced these great minds to flee there native country and eventually wind up in the U.S.A. Their contributions to the U.S.A. resulted in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the computer and a branch of mathematics called game theory. The efforts of these immegrants contributed substantially to our victory over both Germany and Japan,

Budapest as the incubator of Greatness.......2007-05-31

The nine men biographied in this book all were born in pre-WWI Budapest when it was the capital of half the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were "double" outsiders being both Jews and Hungarians, estranged from most of the rest of Central Europe and from their own homeland. After WWI and (thankfully) before the beginning of WW2, they all managed to escape. But they didn't escape from Hitler, most when they first left Budapest went to either Berlin or Vienna; they truly escaped from Admiral Horthy and his Arrow Cross, the first fascist government in Europe.

Of the nine, seven made their homes in america and two in england. In England would 'settle' Alexander Korda who was considered the 'only' British film mogul (producer of "The Third Man") who was later knighted. Also Arthur Koestler, ex-communist who would write the Stalin scathing novel "Darkness at Noon" which first brought to light the Gulag and the terror of Communism.

Four of the scientist who came to america ended up the major forces behind the 'Manhattan Project', the H-Bomb (and later design the 'Strategic Defense Initiative') and the first true computer "Eniac". Two others are responsible for many of the most famous photographs ever published (Robert Capa was known as 'the World's Greater War Photo- journalist') in Look, Life and Home & Gardens. The last man, Michael Curtiz, created the look and feel of three of the most famous american movies, "Mildred Pierce" "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and what many consider the greatest (romantic) movie ever made "Casablanca". It was Curtiz who fought with Jack Warner (and won) the battle to use Bogart and Bergman, instead of George Raft and Bette Davis.

At the end, Kati Marton (whose own family escaped from Hungary in 1956 following the abortive revolution), does a phenomenal job of bringing these nine mens lives to life. Her ending snippets about Andrew Grove (of Intel) and George Soros (who gives new meaning to the word Philanthropist) are worth the price of the book alone.

Hungarians love their salami and their Magyars.......2007-03-26

Every anti-semitic Hungarian needs to read this book.

OK, but..........2007-03-20

I found this book quite interesting although not very well written. I am also less than happy with some of choices made by the author - why these nine are featured when some of them (A. Korda, for example) are not in the same league of significance as others. Why were others ignored?
But that was all well until I read that E. Wigner never returned to Hungary late in his life and was never honored there officially. I met Wigner in Budapest in the late seventies on one of his several trips to Hungary and I know that he received numerous acknowledgments there. Among others, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. So I wonder, what else is inaccurate in the book?

Budapest's loss is the world's gain..........2007-03-12

Ms Marton is a wonderful writer and her subject matter is close to her heart as she is a transplanted Hungarian, like the subjects of her fascinating tale: "The Great Escape". Marton has focused on nine Hungarians,scientists, film makers and photographers, who fled their homeland because of the country's intolerance to their religion. To a man they went on to make their mark in their respective fields the common thread besides their birthplace, was their everlasting affection for Budapest as one of the subjects stated "Everything I am is because of my experience growing up in Budapest". A very fine read, as a result of the book, I have been looking into travelling to this fabled city .

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics

Average customer rating:

An Amazing History Lesson
Good History lesson
Pure Gold!!!
A 20th century Sport Hero
Fantastic ! Page turner!

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics
Jeremy Schaap
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0618688226

Book Description

From the ESPN National Correspondent and author of the New York Times bestseller "Cinderella Man" comes the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of a defining moment in sports and world history. In 1936, against a backdrop of swastikas flying, and storm troopers goose-stepping, an African-American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four Olympic gold medals and single-handedly crushed Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy. The story of Jesse Owen at the 1936 games is that of a high-profile athlete giving a performance that transcends sports. But it is also the intimate and complex tale of the courage of one remarkable man. Drawing on unprecedented access to the Owens family, previously unpublished interviews, and exhaustive archival research, Jeremy Schaap transports us to Nazi Germany to weave this dramatic tale. From the start, American participation in the 1936 games was controversial. A boycott was afoot, based on reports of Nazi hostility to Jews, but was thwarted by the president of the Americn Olympic Committee, who dismissed the actions of the Third Reich as irrelevant. At the games themselves the subplots and intrigue continued: Owens was befriended by a German rival, broad jumper Luz Long, who, legend has it, helped Owens win the gold medal at his own expense. Two Jewish sprinters were denied the chance to compete for the United States at the last possible moment, most likely out of misguided deference to the Nazi hosts. And a myth was born that Hitler had snubbed Owens by failing to congratulate him. With his trademark incisive reporting and rich storytelling gifts, Schaap reveals what really transpired over those tense, exhilarating few weeks some seventy years ago. In the end, "Triumph" is a triumph--a page-turning narrative that illuminates what happens when sports and geopolitics collide on a world stage.

Customer Reviews:

An Amazing History Lesson.......2007-04-10

Take a trip back to the days of World War II in this historical account of Jesse Owens and his trip to the Berlin Olympics.

Good History lesson.......2007-03-31

Very good history lesson. The book flows well and gives a good account of what America and the world was like during Mr. Owen's life. Would encourage the reading of Triumph

Pure Gold!!!.......2007-03-26

Mr. Schaap has sifted through the myth and legend of Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics and given us a compelling account of these extraordinary games. He presents a balanced account of the man and athlete Mr. Owens was, from his humble beginnings in Alabama to his record setting Olympic performance. He sets the tone early by recounting the legendary day of days in Ann Arbor when Mr. Owens achieved one of the greatest athletic accomplishments of all time by tying one and setting FOUR WORLD RECORDS in the span of one hour. He takes us through the politics of race and the olympics. He transports us back to a moment in time when the world was on the precipice of war. For such a small book this is A STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT!!!

A 20th century Sport Hero.......2007-03-19

Sport stories tend to be puffed up and dry. This story lifted out of the early days of WW2 brings to the reader "in living color" the true stry of Jesse James. I had the good fortune of meeting him on two occasions and there was never a finer gentleman than Jesse Owens.
Jack Vax

Fantastic ! Page turner!.......2007-03-17

This is a wonderfully written book. It sounds cliche, but I really couldn't put it down!

Average customer rating:

Marc Chagall
Icon of Modernism

Marc Chagall (Jewish Encounters)
Jonathan Wilson
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0805242015
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Novelist and critic Jonathan Wilson clears away the sentimental mists surrounding an artist whose career spanned two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, and the birth of the State of Israel. Marc Chagall’s work addresses these transforming events, but his ambivalence about his role as a Jewish artist adds an intriguing wrinkle to common assumptions about his life. Drawn to sacred subject matter, Chagall remains defiantly secular in outlook; determined to “narrate” the miraculous and tragic events of the Jewish past, he frequently chooses Jesus as a symbol of martyrdom and sacrifice.

Wilson brilliantly demonstrates how Marc Chagall’s life constitutes a grand canvas on which much of twentieth-century Jewish history is vividly portrayed. Chagall left Belorussia for Paris in 1910, at the dawn of modernism, looking back dreamily on the world he abandoned. After his marriage to Bella Rosenfeld in 1915, he moved to Petrograd, but eventually returned to Paris after a stint as a Soviet commissar for art. Fleeing Paris steps ahead of the Nazis, Chagall arrived in New York in 1941. Drawn to Israel, but not enough to live there, Chagall grappled endlessly with both a nostalgic attachment to a vanished past and the magnetic pull of an uninhibited secular present.

Wilson’s portrait of Chagall is altogether more historical, more political, and edgier than conventional wisdom would have us believe–showing us how Chagall is the emblematic Jewish artist of the twentieth century.

Visit nextbook.org/chagall for a virtual museum of Chagall images.

Customer Reviews:

Marc Chagall.......2007-05-13

This has made a fascinating artist even more interesting; and you can understand the impact of his life on his technique!

Icon of Modernism.......2007-04-14

The reader turns the first page of this little book to see the 1929 oil on canvas painting, "Lovers" by Marc Chagall. The painting depicts a man and woman seated and embracing; the woman's head turned inward on the man's breast, while the man, an expression of calm and contentment, peers upward, watching a winged angel flying overhead, across a deep purple sky. The painting has the deep and rich signature colour of all Chagall's work, though lacks the intense emotional suffering and ambivalence that makes up so much of his oeuvre, however this painting evokes a mystical love, a true love which, in my opinion, expresses the relationship between the artist and his beautiful wife, Bella.

As part of the Jewish Encounter project, Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson is one contribution devoted to the promotion of Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. (One can find all these contributions here on Amazon.)

It can be observed that most of Chagall's work, according to the author, is an expression of his philosophy, his religious sensibility if you will, in the form of the "literalization of metaphors", deeply grounded in the mystical and symbolic Hasidic world and Yiddish folktales, which include in their writings the "repository of flying animals and miraculous events." (P. 13)

It is impossible to label Chagall's work as "Expressionism", but the representation of an acute imagination, coloured in fantasy, depicting highly charged religious symbols, including in several works, Christs Crucifixion in a variety of contexts. What I love about Chagall is the viewer is drawn into the work by its striking colour and busy subject matter and is compelled to study it, because the meaning of the painting must be discovered as it is not apparent on a superficial viewing.

Wilson does a wonderful job of narrating Chagall's life in terms of the major events that the artist experienced, spanning through the Russian revolution, two world wars, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Wilson suggests that in viewing Chagall's paintings against the backdrop of these major historical events will see the artist's work as a response to them, and his personal inner conflict between his "Jewishness" and his focus on Christ's Crucifixion, and also his attempt at secularism in many of his paintings.

My favourite paintings by the artist are his various representations of love that display an ethereal, mystical quality, a sublimeness that to me captures love in their most revealing forms, as Wilson comments,

"Chagall's vision of love, so appealing to the human soul, frequently involves a merging of two faces, or bodies, into one. In this regard he is Platonic, as his figures pursue their other halves in an apparent longing to become whole again. Over and again he paints the myth that Aristophanes recounts in The Symposium." (P.174)

Chagall's life Wilson suggests was an attempt through his art at the reconciliation between two worlds, a genuine effort universalizing or merging opposites, he writes,

"In his paintings, past and present, dream and reality, rabbi and clown, secular and observant, revolutionary and Jew, Jesus and Elijah...all commingle and merge in a world where history and geography but also the laws of physics and nature have been suspended." (P. 210)

Wilson's Marc Chagall is an erudite biography and insightful critical work. Although relatively short in length, manages to capture the artist who is considered along with Picasso and Matisse, one of the icons of Modernism.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

Average customer rating:

Biased didacticism, not history.
Used in teaching about WWII
who was hitler?
The Children Loove Hitler
Truth from the other point of view!!!

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Manufacturer: Scholastic Nonfiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Europe | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0439353793

Book Description

"I begin with the young. We older ones are used up . . . But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world." --Adolf Hitler, Nuremberg 1933 By the time Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth. It would become the largest youth group in history. Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany's young people. Her research includes telling interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members.

Customer Reviews:

Biased didacticism, not history. .......2007-04-16

Halfway through listening to this book on CD, I wondered why it seemed like the author was talking down to me. The writing was very simplistic and the extremely irritating narrator felt obligated to remind us that Nazism was bad by reading every race-related word with the utmost sarcasm possible, e.g. "Hitler wanted a 'puuuuure' (tee-hee) 'Aaaaaryan' (rotfl!) 'race' (hahahaha!)." This book also felt the need to explain even the most elemental German terms, the most hilarious being when the author told us that "Heil Hitler" means "Hail Hitler" in English. I was kind of offended at the condescension until I finally looked at the CD case and saw that the book was meant for grade-school kids. It contains some interesting accounts of time in the Hitler Youth, but nothing too revelatory. I guess the point of writing this book was to tell kids that racism is bad and not to be conformist. The author goes overboard though by declaring that "All scientists agree that race is only skin deep". (That quote may not be verbatim.) Even leaving aside questions of intelligence, that statement is a blatant lie, as widely varying racial susceptibility to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. will attest. Does Ms. Campbell Bartoletti really want children to be independent thinkers, or does she merely want to indoctrinate them in her own egalitarian ideology?

Used in teaching about WWII.......2007-03-07

When pairing this book with books about World War II from the Allied perspective and the Jewish perspective, it really provides a completely different point of view. It allows students to see the historical event from more than one view, and this will encourage them to be open-minded and willing to see the points of view of others in life.

who was hitler?.......2007-02-13

this is a good book that tells the story of adolf hitler's little army the hitler youth.this book tells the story of many people tha died when hitler was a leader i relly like this book because i had heard of his little army and some of the people that were in his army. this is a very good book if you want to learn of hitler's power

The Children Loove Hitler.......2007-02-09

What do you think it would feel like if you lived during the time of World War II? The book Hitler Youth tells stories of children during this time period. There are many main characters telling the story of their lives during World War II.

The layout of this book is an easy read, but there are a lot of words and pictures on a page. There might also be a word in German that might be hard to read, but there aren't that many.

If you are interested in reading this book, then I think you should be at least in sixth grade or up. It is not a complicated book, but I think that Middle schoolers have more of an interest in World War II. I also think that this book would interest people who want to know what happened to the children during this particular time.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti has written other great books besides the Hitler Youth. She wrote Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, and Dear America: A Coal Miner's Bride.

Hitler Youth is a great book for studying, or for a free read. I recommend this book to read to anyone interested in World War II. I think it is important for people to know what happened the late 1930's to the early 1940's, because it had such a big impact in the world.
PR7

Truth from the other point of view!!!.......2006-11-30

This book is really good! It tells the story of young people of Germany. Usually the books on WWII focus on the victims of the Holocaust and the Allies, but this book tells the point of view of the Hitler Youth. I think this shows how the young people of Germany were also targeted. Hitler manipulated his way to become the chancellor of Germany. This book has a lot of interviews with Hitler Youth boys and girls. They tell their story and how they felt about the war, school, and their life. I strongly recommend this book to adults and young people.

The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion (Philosophy and the Global Context)

Average customer rating:

Very thoughtful and well-written
Focused, well-argued, important

The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion (Philosophy and the Global Context)
Bernard Harrison
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0742552276

Book Description

Written by a non-Jewish analytic philosopher, this book addresses the issue of whether, and to what extent, current opposition to Israel on the liberal-left embodies anti-Semitic stances. It argues that the dominant climate of liberal opinion disseminates, however inadvertently, a range of anti-Semitic assertions and motifs of the most traditional kind. It advocates a return to an unrestricted anti-racism which would allow liberals to defend Palestinian interests without demonizing Jews.

Customer Reviews:

Very thoughtful and well-written.......2007-06-24

This is a careful work on the nature of the resurgence of anti-Semitism. We see the ill will, the falsehoods, and lack of logic displayed by the anti-Semites, and there's some speculation on what gets some folks to behave in such a manner.

Bernard Harrison starts by discussing some of the properties of political anti-Semitism. He says that it generally includes, as a minimum, the proposition that Jews are a mysterious, depraved, and conspiratorial society which threatens the well-being of any nation which harbors them. And he reminds us that many of the accusations made against "the Jews" are simply self-inconsistent or incoherent. For example, the blood libel accusations are generally of the form that observant Jews commit ritual murder for religious reasons, something which is, of course, expressly forbidden by their religion. We also generally see anti-Semites simultaneously claim (or imply) that Jews are so powerful as to be responsible for the bulk of the evil in today's society yet are so powerless that they can be attacked with impunity (I tend to believe that those who make such claims are more serious about the latter one).

We also see discussions of the preposterous claim that mere criticism of Israel is sufficient to get one automatically branded as an anti-Semite. As well as another ridiculous claim that almost anyone who finds anything about Israel that is worthy of support is Jewish, and that pretty much anyone who is Jewish supports Israel. And the even more absurd claim that Israel is basically a colonial enterprise is also quickly refuted.

Harrison also is careful to distinguish between explaining why Israel exists and justifying Israel's existence. I agree. The fact that Jerusalem had been (and still was) the Jewish capital city in the 19th century helps explain why many Jews tried moving to the region once they had the opportunity to do so. The White Paper of 1939 helps explain why the number of Jews who demanded a Jewish state quickly became a majority once World War Two broke out. But these facts, by themselves do not "justify" what happened, nor do they "establish" Israel's "right to exist."

The author does write about fascism and the concept of "total war," including war against civilians. Here, he makes an excellent point, namely that claims about the "guilt" of such civilians make no sense. As he explains, even if one assents to the idea of capital punishment, "punishment" makes no sense without the concept of desert, desert makes no sense without a practicable and practiced system of laws, laws require some general acquiescence in their operation, acquiescence requires reconciliation, and reconciliation requires all sides to admit their own errors and as a minimum the right of their adversaries to exist. Obviously, any bunch of gangsters can go around murdering people, but we ought to remind ourselves that they are not necessarily "punishing" those who "deserve it."

There is a discussion about whether or not there ought to be a "Holocaust Day" for remembering that societies can make some terrible moral mistakes. Here, Harrison is careful to explain that the emphasis on the suffering of the victims is probably misplaced, as plenty of people have suffered in all sorts of tragedies. No, the emphasis ought to be on the terrible results, systematic annihilation of groups of people, of a certain kind of corruption which springs from a philosophy of racial superiority. Again, I agree. I'm not so sure we need a Holocaust Day, but I certainly do not buy the argument that such a day makes the Jews special, or makes Jewish blood worth more (or less) than the blood of non-Jews. The author makes the point that some people are envious of the sympathy that they think some Jews receive for the Holocaust and wish to use that word (often without its actual meaning) to get some sympathy for themselves. I find such an idea doubly misguided, as I tend to agree with Herzl that even appeals for sympathy by the genuinely oppressed are futile and dishonorable.

Some folks do insist on "dismantling" Israel, and Harrison discusses this at length. Here, he makes another good point, namely that the would-be dismantlers do not seem to worry much about how to protect the rights of the Jews in the region after the "dismantling." Instead, we see one anti-Israeli claim to be worried about the "fate" of the Jews, as if the Jews ought not have rights and as if whatever happens to the Jews is not only the fault of the Jews, but something the rest of us can't possibly prevent or be responsible for.

The lack of logic of some anti-Semitic claims does get exposed. We see the "mysteriousness" of the Jews used as a means to explain how the Jews can accomplish vast crimes even when they lack both motive and opportunity. Of course, when it gets to claims that "the Jewish lobby" has managed to reduce "the entire American political establishment to a state of bemused sleepwalking" for the past forty years, Harrison explains that we're not only talking about Jews doing the impossible, but about the American people being quite a bit stupider than they really are.

Near the end of the book, the author asks if anti-Semitism matters. Does it matter that the Guardian spouts a fair amount of it? Well, yes, it does. The terror we see is not helping Arabs, Jews, or anyone else. And responsible people ought to feel bound by a duty to support truth and facts. Harrison says that while one can live without understanding world affairs, one can't "live perfectly well on a diet of murderous lies. Europe tried that in the 1930s. It would do well not to try it again."

I highly recommend this book.

Focused, well-argued, important.......2007-01-15

I write as a long-time leftist, writer on Marxist theory, and charter member of the New Left.
Harrison brings a precise philosopher's intelligence to the vexing, frightening, and at times disgusting phenomenon of left-wing anti-semitism. If his history is at times one-sided and his account of the left simplistic, he has nailed the many failures of left moral clarity and intellectual imagination. If you've ever wondered why and how seemingly liberal, left, anti-racist, nice people can hold such distorted views on Israel, this is an excellent book for you. If you think of yourself as progressive and think Israel has no right to exist, or is the sole cause of the conflict, you'd better read it immediately.

But He Was Good to His Mother : The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters

Average customer rating:

Entertaining and inaccurate
Will buy again.
great book and a fun reading
Jewish criminals objectively presented by a Jew
Big Tsuris

But He Was Good to His Mother : The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters
Robert A. Rockaway
Manufacturer: Gefen Publishing House, Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 9652292494

Book Description

Now in its 7th printing - inludes more gangsters!
Newly footnoted and expanded bibliography!
New FBI documents!
More detailed information about the alleged plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler!

While doing research for this book, Prof. Robert Rockaway interviewed old-time Jewish mobsters and their families. He never knew what his subjects would say or do, so he came prepared for any eventuality.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining and inaccurate.......2006-05-16

A good book for casual crime readers who don't need heavy details, but amazingly inaccurate in several areas. Seems to repeat old myths told in other books rather than do research.

ie Joe the Boss's hit team did not include Anastasia, Adonis or even Siegel

or

Dutch Schultz was not shot in the bathroom or even shot by Charlie Workman. The caliber of the bullet found in Dutch matched those used by his men, not those who had shot his men down. The more accurate tale is that he was mistaken;y shot by his own men while trading fire with Lepke's boys. (The bathroom was directly behind the doorway where Workman had to be shooting from)

Will buy again........2005-09-17

Prompt delivery of my order. Would recommend this seller. Book as advertised.

great book and a fun reading.......2004-02-09

this book is a great academic book mixed with fun storytelling.

Jewish criminals objectively presented by a Jew.......2003-08-26

The book is a reasonably objective record of the fact that even though the word "mafia" is Italian, not all gangsters were (or are) Italian (and thus Catholic)... many were Jews or WASPs for that matter. US Gangsterism was (and is) a USA product, partly because of the ethnic heterogeneity produced by immigration and to a great extent by prohibition. There is of course gangsterism in other countries but backgrounds differ.
The author catalogued the major Jewish gangsters, their family history, their social setting and their "activities". Being Jewish myself I was glad to discover: a) unlike Italian gangsters the Jewish ones tended to keep their families out of their "business", and b) Jewish economic emancipation after WW II practically eliminated Jews from the "business". An enlightening read though rather dry in the first half of the book.

Big Tsuris.......2001-12-25

A seldom-covered aspect of true crime history and Jewish history, "But He was Good to His Mother" is a fine read for anyone interested in either. It delves into the histories of several gangsters, their misdeeds, relationships to the Jewish community and anecdotes that shed some light on what these crimelords were really like. Plenty of photos are included.

Rockaway does a fairly good job of striking a balance in tackling a delicate subject. He points out the occasional admirable deeds of the gangsters (protecting American Jews from anti-semites, for example) while making it quite clear that these were very bad men. He fesses up that these killers and lawbreakers were admired by some in the community, but by no means all.

Occasionally, books about influential Jews get a little hokey when they gush over how the values of the Jewish community produced so many great people. (As though, without centuries of respect for learning by the Jews, Einstein might never have come up with relativity; whatever.) As a Jew myself, I think it feels more honest and refreshing to see it acknowledged that these same values and shared history produced some no-goodniks along the way, too. And ones who broke the stereotypes about Jews at that.

If anything, I'd have liked more information, more stories about the gangsters in the book. Especially nice would have been more on their role in the general public's perception and pop culture. The book doesn't tell you that the purple gang was infamous enough to be mentioned in Elvis Presley's JailHouse Rock, no opinion on who did a better job of playing Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth in "Hoodlum" or James Remar in "The Cotton Club"?), no word on whether Mickey Cohen was really as daft as James Ellroy portrays him, no mention of "Bugsy" or "The Godfather, part 2".

Still, I liked the book. I wouldn't label it an offer you can't refuse, but it's an offer it wouldn't kill you to accept.

Average customer rating:

Peace Be Upon You

A very refreshing book.

A world view about peace

Well researched, but biased

God is Great and this book is Excellent

Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence in the Middle East
Zachary Karabell
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization

Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life

American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion

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Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present

ASIN: 1400043689
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

The story of conflict and confrontation between Islam and the West has become daily news, but throughout the ages Muslims, Christians, and Jews have shared more than enmity and war: there is also a rich and textured history of coexistence that has all but disappeared from our collective memory. In this timely and revealing book, Zachary Karabell traces the legacy of tolerance and cooperation from the advent of Islam to the present day.

In an extraordinary narrative spanning fourteen centuries, Karabell introduces us to the court of the caliphs in Baghdad, where scholars of various faiths engaged in spirited debate. He evokes the wonders of medieval Spain, where Jewish sages, Muslim philosophers, and Christian monks together deciphered the meaning of God and the universe. He offers a portrait of the Crusades that goes beyond the rivalry of Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, and shows how Christians and Muslims lived side by side. And he paints a vivid picture of religious autonomy in the Ottoman Empire.

As he explores the growing tensions of the modern era, Karabell traces the rise of Arab nationalism, the redrawing of the Middle East map in the wake of World War I, and the increased hostilities following the creation of the state of Israel. Through it all, he reminds us that dialogue and friendship have always punctuated times of war and discord. Today, while some Muslims, Christians, and Jews engage in confrontation, others—in Dubai, in Turkey, and around the globe—find common ground. Remembering the legacy of coexistence and recognizing its prevalence even today is a vital ingredient to a more stable, secure world.

Customer Reviews:

Peace Be Upon You.......2007-08-23

An excellent summary of periods of religious tolerance practiced by Christian and Muslim rulersetween 10th and 15th centuries. The study is balanced in that instances of non-tolerance are also presented. The study would have benefitted from the inclusion of pluralistic policies of the Fatimids, who ruled from Cairo in the 10th and 11th centuries.

A very refreshing book........2007-08-20

It is a well written, unbiased book that holds your interest throughout various chapters. I personally finished the book within a weekend. The author describes the historical coexistence that has occurred between various religious rulers of the Abrahamic faith, and their treatment of their subjects. There is also a good deal of information related to current conflicts in the world, detailing the formation of current middle eastern countries, including saudi arabia, jordan, israel, iraq to name a few. A must-read

A world view about peace.......2007-08-01

Peace Be Upon You surveys Muslim history from the seventh century to the present day. As the title suggests, Karabell focuses on those historical episodes, and where pluralistic society is highlighted, there is peaceful co-existence among people of different religions, and genuine religious tolerance. Woven into the narrative is Karabell's interpretation of the events and the reader is reminded to view these events not from the twenty-first century perspective, but from the perspective of the period.

In the introduction, Karabell states that "... the pages that follow present stories of both conflict and corporation." As a survey, it is necessary to focus only on the highlights of the era. The issue becomes deciding which events merit representing that era and here seeps the narrator's bias. Karabell's bias minimizes the role of religious doctrine as a driver for violence, and this view may be regarded as understating the rational for conflict in some eras.

The work explores primarily Muslim societies for examples of co-existence. This may be due to its scope. Examples are non-Muslim societies, where religious tolerance was the norm, are not given much exposure. Hence, the Norman king Roger II is not given a lot of exposure.

Civil society is composed of non-governmental organizations. These organizations have molded their respective society's outlook and in turn shaped official policies. In understanding religious tolerance, this aspect needs to be more fully explored. While there are some examples (such as the Order of Cluny), the influence of the Ottoman guilds or contemporary NGOs (such as AKDN) is not thoroughly explored.

Peace Be Upon You seems to have two objectives. The first is to convey the message that we need to live in peace with other societies that are difference from our own. The second is that history is complex and contains examples of peace as well as conflict. How we choose to look at it defines our present attitude, and shapes future events. In achieving these objectives, Karabell does an excellent job. In his words: "Peace is woven in our collective past; it is there to be seen in our messy present; and it will be there in or shared future."

Armchair Interviews says: Peace be upon you.

Well researched, but biased.......2007-07-02

The author is a good, persuasive writer. His research is impressive. Prospective readers should know going in, however, that Mr. Karabell has a bias. Rather than telling you up-front about his bias, he reveals it slowly and subtly throughout the book. For its merits, I give the book two stars. For not being up-front with his readers, I withhold three stars.

So, what is his bias? He laments the loss of Muslim rule in the world, not as we see it today, but as he perceives it was 1000 years ago. As other reviewers have noted here on Amazon, the author carefully proposes that only when Muslims ruled certain regions of the world has there been peace there. He largely sees the ancient Muslim regimes as promoters of peace and humility. He sees them as tolerant and respectful of other religions. And, he feels that they possessed an admirable inquisitiveness into the arts and sciences. In the Christian and post-Christian regimes he largely sees corruption, greed, rapaciousness, brutality and oppression. A balanced and more realistic work would have more carefully demonstrated that there was incredible brutality and greed on all sides throughout history.

Karabell argues that the best way to approach a book like this is by using Islam as the reference point for considering Judaism and Christianity. He writes, "it makes sense to focus primarily on how Muslims dealt with Jews and Christians rather than on how Jews and Christians dealt with Muslims [...] Muslims had to think through relations between the faiths far more than Christians and Jews ever did [...] Only after the first wave of Muslim conquests were Jews and Christians forced to invent theologically acceptable compromises that would allow them to acquiesce to Muslim rule." His approach is certainly one of the ways that one could approach this topic. Failing to consider, or even mention, the other ways, suggests a lack of balance, especially in light of some of the other things he writes in the book.

Later in the book, he writes, "the humiliation of Muslim societies at the hands of Western states [...] produced a legacy of hatred and animosity that eventually led to the fundamentalism, violence, and terrorism of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries." He goes on to argue that the rise of the West, in its pursuit of what he calls "the cult of progress" meant "disdain for established religion and for political systems that had governed people from time immemorial." In other words, the West sacrificed peace for wealth and as a result is, ultimately, responsible for the terrorist attacks in New York, London and Spain. These are not the words of an unbiased historian. For many, these are not words of peace.

God is Great and this book is Excellent.......2007-05-20

My title reflects a past reviewer who said God may be great. There is no debate or question about it, God is Great. He is greater than any of his creation which is why it is so repugnant to Muslims that Jesus is considered divine, but thats a completely different topic.

This book is refreshing and the title of it is magnificent. Many people are dumbstruck by this book and that is echoed by a reviewer who said he felt uncomfortble reading it. To the western reader, it is unconfortable when you see the truth that Muslims were civilized people. They were not the most evil and terror driven people that the media wants you to believe. The Jews that lived under Muslim rule were treated more humanely then any Christian civiliaztion in history. It is only in the 20th century that America has embraced the Jews and it took a holocaust for even that to happen.

The part of this book that I think is the most important is the chapter on Saladins Jihad. The author does justice to Saladin when he says that his tolerance was legendary but when it came time to fight, he was bold and ruthless. I think that is the best type of person you can have as commander in chief. He allowed the Jews and Christians to continue to worship when he took over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas and that is exactly what the prophet Muhammad would have done. His example is a throwback to the early Muslims who conquered half the known world but still let people who were non-Muslim co-exist with the Muslims without any problems. I recommend, if you have time, to watch Islam: Empire of Faith to learn more about the way that Muslims lived side by side with the people of the book. You can probably get it from your local library.

The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki.

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Discover the book--it's worth it!
Warsaw ghetto
The Author of Me-Me-Me, I-I-I
Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Selfmade Man Extraordinaire
binding

The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
Marcel Reich-Ranicki
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691090408

Book Description

Marcel Reich-Ranicki is remarkable for both his unlikely life story and his brilliant career as the "pope of German letters." His sublimely written autobiography is at once a fascinating adventure tale, an unusual account of German-Jewish relations, a personal rumination on who's who in German culture, and a love letter to literature.

Reich-Ranicki's life took him from middle-class childhood to wartime misery to the heights of intellectual celebrity. Born into a Jewish family in Poland in 1920, he moved to Berlin as a boy. There he discovered his passion for literature and began a complex affair with German culture. In 1938, his family was deported back to Poland, where German occupation forced him into the Warsaw Ghetto. As a member of the Jewish resistance, a translator for the Jewish Council, and a man who personally experienced the ghetto's inhumane conditions, Reich-Ranicki gained both a bird's-eye and ground-level view of Nazi barbarism. Written with subtlety and intelligence, his account of this episode is among the most compelling and dramatic ever recorded.

He escaped with his wife and spent two years hiding in the cellar of Polish peasants--an incident later immortalized by Günter Grass. After liberation, he joined and then fell out with the Communist Party and was temporarily imprisoned. He began writing and soon became Poland's foremost critical commentator on German literature.

When Reich-Ranicki returned to Germany in 1958, his rise was meteoric. In short order, he claimed national celebrity and notoriety as the head of the literary section of the leading newspaper and host of his own television program. He frequently flabbergasted viewers with his bold pronouncements and flexed his power to make or break a writer's career. His list of friends and enemies rapidly expanded to include every influential player on the German literary scene, including Grass and Heinrich Böll. This, together with his keen critical instincts, makes his memoir an indispensable guide to contemporary German culture as well as an absorbing eyewitness history of some of the twentieth century's most important events.

Customer Reviews:

Discover the book--it's worth it!.......2007-10-10

It is interesting how often we see a person through his profession and work. You see an older man on television discussing books, you know that he is a literary critic writing reviews and books. Sure, they say that he is the one, that he is 'the Pope' of German letters, but if you are not interested in literature why would you care about a bookish man. What could be interesting about his life? If you are that person, reconsider. True, parts of the book are about literature and won't appeal to some (though try not to skip them either), but there is so much more. If not for the fact that author's early life happened in so tragic years of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust, one could call the book a thriller, an adventure of an extraordinary height. The tragedy of these years makes the story real and sobering, but exciting nevertheless. Born in Poland of Polish Jewish parents, moved to Germany, deported by the Nazis back to Poland, survived Warsaw Ghetto and the war, served as Polish diplomat in England, wrote for Polish papers, returned to West Germany, became the leading literary critic in Germany. Read, read, and read one more time.

Warsaw ghetto.......2002-08-23

The most moving part of this book is its description of life in the Warsaw ghetto -- of how the Jews created a symphony orchestra and the Nazis' response to it, of the way that the Nazis chose which Jews were to be "resettled" and which would temporarily be allowed to live, and of Reich-Ranicki's and his wife's means of survival. I wish that Reich-Ranicki had been more introspective in the book, but one can't have everything -- it's a great book nonetheless.

The Author of Me-Me-Me, I-I-I.......2002-02-12

The concept of this work is both unique and intriguing while the execution was boring and trite. I'm certain that persons more familiar with German literature and authors will take great offense at my brief analysis but I learned more about everyone else in Germany than I did about Marcel Reich-Raniki. The first half of the book did keep me interested but always wanting for more, more about him & his wife and a lot less about Max Frisch et al. I was also put-off by his constant references to himself and how important he was. He was lucky to survive the holocost, lucky to have such a position in Germany after the war, but should have left the writing to those whom he reviewed.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Selfmade Man Extraordinaire.......2001-10-06

Considering how little is translated and published here in the U.S. from the German, it is heartening that Marcel Reich-Ranicki's autobiography is among the chosen. It is a moving testimony of a life dislocated and reconstructed several times over, of a youth in Berlin, survival in the Warsaw Ghetto,life in post-War Poland, and a return to West Germany, where he rose to be the the most esteemed and, I suppose, also feared literary critic. His portrayal of the German literary scene from the sixties through the nineties by means of vignettes of its chief representatives is poignant and revealing. His assessment including that of his own role within it is likely to have provoked controversy.

Throughout the book emerges the self-portrait of a courageous,persevering, and also pained and sensitive man, who as a much-published author, radio and television personality seems to have been simultaneously at the center and at the margins of German cultural life for four decades.

I happened to be in the midst of reading the German version of the book when the events of September 11 threw our world out of kilter. Day after day I went back to Reich-Ranicki's "Mein Leben" with bated breath to escape from the present, not into an idyllic past, but to gain perspective on human suffering from a wise old man who describes his own lifelong anguish without sentimentality or moralizing. There may be other takes on his life story, but no one can deny his undying passion for the literature of the German language and his pursuit of it against all odds. To have an English translation to share with my friends is indeed something to write home about.

It is ironic, to say the least, that Reich-Ranicki, who was born in Poland, raised in Berlin, deported to Poland because of being a Jew, should be called "the Pope of German Letters." But then was he, whom the popes represent on Earth, not also a Jew? (with apologies to G.E.Lessing).

binding.......2001-08-05

Marcel Reich-Ranicki deserves only praise for his autobiography. Generally known as a critic, many claim a quite harsh one, he turns the coin and proves that against all odds and unfortunate for the poor victims of his harsh criticism, who desperately tried to cling and hold to the idea that this man might criticise like a God, but he cannot write like One, when it comes to a piece of literature. But in fact, this is a man of words, of literature and keeping a reader interested, not only in his life, but also in a decade of misery and destruction that should not have been. The reoccurring questions that came to my mind while reading: What would I have done, Where would I have been, arise again and again, but can never be answered... And if you had the chance to enjoy looking at Marcel Reich-Ranicki while reading his own words at Frankfurt (an evening held by the "Deutsche Bank"), you might have been sitting next to me. And I suppose, none of us would want to miss this once in a "second" opportunity.

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