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The Struggle for Soviet Jewish Emigration, 19481967 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies)
Yaacov Ro'i
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521390842 |
Book Description
In this important new study of Soviet Jewry, Yaacov Ro'i examines their struggle for emigration from the establishment of the State of Israel to the outbreak of the Six-Day War. Using a range of personal interviews, he explores how Jewish self awareness arose both as a result of the founding of the State of Israel and as a product of the Holocaust. Local groups developed and sustained Jewish cultural interests and their Jewish identity in the face of popular anti-Semitism and Soviet policy. The author continues by analyzing the campaign conducted in the West and mobilized by the Israeli government on behalf of Soviet Jewish rights as a whole and emigration in particular. Ro'i convincingly argues that despite the efforts of Soviet Jewish groups to flourish in a steadfastly anti-Semitic system, by 1967 most had accepted that the only way of implementing their Zionist aspirations was to emigrate to Israel. However, without the extensive groundwork carried out in the period 1948-1967, it is doubtful if the mass emigration of the 1970s would have been possible.
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In this important new study of Soviet Jewry, Yaacov Ro'i examines their struggle for emigration from the establishment of the State of Israel to the outbreak of the Six-Day War. Using a range of personal interviews, he explores how Jewish self awareness arose both as a result of the founding of the State of Israel and as a product of the Holocaust. Local groups developed and sustained Jewish cultural interests and their Jewish identity in the face of popular anti-Semitism and Soviet policy. The author continues by analyzing the campaign conducted in the West and mobilized by the Israeli government on behalf of Soviet Jewish rights as a whole and emigration in particular. Ro'i convincingly argues that despite the efforts of Soviet Jewish groups to flourish in a steadfastly anti-Semitic system, by 1967 most had accepted that the only way of implementing their Zionist aspirations was to emigrate to Israel. However, without the extensive groundwork carried out in the period 1948-1967, it is doubtful if the mass emigration of the 1970s would have been possible.
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From Tragedy to Triumph: The Politics Behind the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry
Mitchell G. Bard
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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ASIN: 0275970000 |
Book Description
From 1984 to 1991, Israel conducted a series of dramatic rescues, bringing thousands of Ethiopian Jews to the state of Israel. Codenamed Operation Sheba, this effort involved various covert means, including large-scale airlifts and exchanges for arms, to save these Jews from intolerable conditions in Ethiopia and the Sudan. But as dramatic and uplifting as this effort was, there are still troubling questions about why it took so many years for Israel to act on behalf its African compatriots. This is the complete story behind the Israeli rescue of the Jews of Ethiopia--how tragedy was turned into triumph. These rescue operations represented the culmination of complex political maneuvering in Israel and illustrated what Israeli resolve can accomplish when Jewish lives are endangered. It was an inspiring effort--as William Safire wrote at the time, "thousands of black people are being brought to a country not as slaves, but as citizens." On the other hand, there is much to deplore how long it took for the leaders of Israel to recognize and take action to save this ancient African branch of the Jewish Diaspora, known as the Falasha. The reasons are the result of the complex intersection of Israeli geostrategy, pressure from the American Jewish community, and Ethiopian domestic politics, as well as racism and debates about the "Jewishness" of the Falasha community.
Book Description
The Jews of Iraq constituted one of the oldest and most deeply rooted Jewish communities in the world. But in the early 1950s most of them left for Israel, under circumstances that remain the subject of heated controversy.Iraqi Jews: A History examines the role of this community, highlighting the critical years of the late 1940s - after the establishment of the state of Israel - when deep rifts began to appear Iraqi society. The sad sequence of events that finally led to the mass exodus of Jews in the 1950s was marked by dishonesty on all sides.An honest, impartial and well-documented account of a formerly well-integrated and vibrant community, Iraqi Jews: A History is a landmark in the political and social history of the Middle East.
Customer Reviews:
An important scholarly work.......2006-04-20
First a correction: The full title of this book is Iraqi Jews: A History of Mass Exodus. This is *not* a general history of Iraqi Jews; rather it specifically and exhaustively addresses the causes and repercussions of the exodus of Jews from Iraq in the period directly after the creation of the state of Israel.
The Jewish population of Iraq, and particularly of Baghdad, constitutes one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. In 1948, the Jewish population numbered well over 100,000. In the 1957 census, slightly less than 5,000 remained. Today, the number of Jews remaining hovers around 100, mostly elderly, holdouts.
Shiblak, using a wealth of sources, examines the pushes and pulls which created this mass exouds and gives a wealth of information regarding its demographic repercussions.
For those hoping for polemics (and this, like all issues relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict, is a point of polemical debate), Shiblak will certainly disappoint. Even the polemically minded, however, will find it hard to resist the wealth of statistical materials he provides. For the casual reader, this short, but very dense, work may be too much of a good thing. It is not a particularly easy read. On the other hand, for serious students of the Arab-Israeli conflict or of the Middle East, this is an invaluable contribution and well worthy of consideration.
Book Description
This book chronicles the story of a group of individuals caught at a crossroads and targeted in the cross fires of history. In 1933 events in their native Germanic lands presented them with a "Hobson's choice"-leave if you can or die! Their lives were saved because Turkey was discarding the society and culture inherited from the Ottomans' derelict and shattered empire while recognizing and addressing the need to modernize its society, culture, way of living, and system of higher education. Using a collection of third-party archival documents, cotemporaneous family and collegial correspondence, memoirs, oral histories, photos, and other surviving evidence Arnold Reisman documents the fears, the courage, the heartaches, and the determination of these brilliant people as well as their contributions to shifting established paradigms in several fields of knowledge. He also speculates about Turkey's inabilities to fully capitalize on these emigres' legacy. The book is intended for lay readers interested in history of the 20th Century, history of science, history of Turkey, the Holocaust, and in a case study of post-Islamic national development. "This book adds to our knowledge of an important aspect of the Holocaust, and of the behavior of Nation States in the modern world of woe and grief." - Sir Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading historian of the modern world. He is the author of The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. "This book should be on the 'must-read' list of books about World War II and the years preceding it." - Dr. Israel Hanukoglu, Former Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel. Currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology, College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel. "This book involves five major topics: science, history, politics, economics, and the arts. It is the earliest comprehensive essay in the English language, on the German émigrés who, while taking refuge in Turkey after 1933, contributed to the modernization of its higher education, and to the implementation of research activities and social reforms." - Prof. Dr. Feza Günergun, Chair for History of Science, Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University, Beyazit-Istanbul, Turkey.
Customer Reviews:
In depth information about a little known topic.......2007-02-02
This book is about the story of the German-Jewish professors that were displaced by the [..]and were invited to come to Turkey by Ataturk's government. About 150 of them came in the 1933-1938 time frame. Some stayed for a few years, many stayed for 10 years or more. Some have stayed until retirement.The book, about 470 pages long and illustrated with many photographs and other material, is a really well-researched investigation into * the world circumstances that made this episode possible* the individuals who arranged the mechanics of this immigration* the personal life stories of these very capable scholars* how they adapted to life in Turkey* how they impacted Turkey's university education and modernization* the nature of the support and non-support they received from the government and the people This was a subject I had fleeting knowledge about. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, which greatly enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the subject. It also provided yet another illustration of the vision and genius of Ataturk in making deft use of every opportunity to improve his nation. It triggered in my mind the thought that Turkey probably had a second similar opportunity at the time of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, when top tier scientists in select fields could have easily been induced to come to Turkey. Unfortunately, political cadres in charge at the time had nowhere near Ataturk's vision. I would highly recommend this book to everyone. It is very readable and has many details that our generation can relate to. An interesting trivia is that Einstein was one month away himself from coming to Turkey within these group of scholars, when he received an offer from Princeton.
WOWW.......2007-01-01
A fascinating read.
I am very involved with genealogy, so I really enjoyed the memoirs.
The structure of the book was different and refreshing.
Highly recommended especially for college library, international studies and Turkish history shelves........2006-12-10
Written by Arnold Reisman Ph.D., who has served as Visiting Scholar in Turkey at both Sabanci University and the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk's Vision is enlightening true story of how the Turkish Government of Mustafa Kernal Atatuk and Ismet Inonu accepted German and Austrian Jews, and took advantage of these victims of racial prejudice and persecution to aid the Turkish Republic's progress in academic, scientific, and medical undertakings. Tracing the lasting impacts of builders, preservers, creators, social reformers, healers, and scientists, as well as the problems they encountered, the turbulence caused by World War II and their attempts to emigrate to the U.S., Turkey's Modernization is a fascinating parable of how Turkey capitalized upon the best and the brightest - as well as of its stumbling blocks, such as its cultural predispositions for encouraging talented scientists to be content as hired hands rather than strike out and forge new businesses. Highly recommended especially for college library, international studies and Turkish history shelves.
Compelling!.......2006-09-26
Arnold Reisman's book, Turkey's Modernization, was a history lesson of the best kind. I have read a number of books on the Nazi takeover of various countries. Yet, I had never experienced the joy of learning how Turkey welcomed those expelled from Germany.
In 1933, when Hitler came to power, he decided to dismiss all Jewish professors from German colleges and universities. Geniuses of technology, physics and the arts fled into Turkey's waiting arms and began its well-deserved modernization.
The "emigres" (renowned scientists, architects and artists) are responsible for some of the most magnificent structures in Turkey still standing today. These brave professors taught Turkish students and were revered by most in the country. Of course, they had to deal with jealousy from Turkish professors for a number of reasons. Some of the emigres were paid a higher salary and enjoyed various perks, yet this was all deserved. It certainly couldn't heal a people
who were devastated at having to leave their homes and families to chart an unknown territory. Yet, thank God they did! Hitler's lost was absolutely Turkey's gain!
These professors were too many to be named in this review. You must read this book in order to understand and celebrate the contributions of these refugees from Nazism. They were saviors to Turkey and the students they benefited.
Turkey's Modernization was a book I couldn't put down. It should be required reading for all who are history majors and any who can enjoy a story of lemons turned into lemonade.
Armchair Interviews says: Another unique view of history most do not know.
Refuge and its reward .......2006-09-25
The convergence of two historical developments are at the center of this book. First , is the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany. Second, is the creation of modern Turkey, and its effort to develop a first- rate set of academic institutions. This convergence meant that a number of leading German and Austrian academics were invited in the years 1933-1939 to teach and help establish their disciplines in Turkey. Among these are some figures of world - reputation including Erich Auerbach, the author of one of the greatest of all works of Literary Criticism, 'Mimesis' the leading figures of the 'Berlin Group' the philosopher Hans Reichenbach, the mathemitician aerodynamist and positivist philosopher Richard von Mises, the positivist philosopher Carl Hempl, the composer Paul Hindemith, the theatrical producer Carl Ebert,and the astrophysicist Findlay Freundlich. One of the first scientists and a major figure in expediting the whole process was the pathologist Philip Schwarz. All in all close to three - hundred distinguished academics and their family members made their way to Turkey during this time. The effect of their efforts amounted to nothing less than a total transformation of the higher education system in Turkey, in the sciences, humanities, and arts, but also in public health, library, legal, engineering and administrative practices.
Reisman provides a thorough documentation and often moving narrative of this process, including his telling of many of the individual stories of the academicians involved. In the background he provides an overall history of modern Turkey and brings this up - to- date even providing an explanation of the current situation of the academic world in Turkey and why the original reforms carried out by these academicians have not always had the results desired.
This is a large book impressively researched and very clearly and movingly written.
I could not recommend it more highly.
Average customer rating:
- Westward migration, settlement, community
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Jewish Life in the American West: Perspectives on Migration, Settlement, and Community
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
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Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West
ASIN: 0295982756 |
Book Description
In American popular culture and scholarship, American Jewry has been viewed from the perspective of the legendary New York Jewish immigrant experience. But for those Jews who settled in western cities and towns, this epic played only a minor role. To the land between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean came a steady stream of Jewish men and women. Between 1850 and the 1920s the Jewish population of the western United States grew from a number too small to count to an estimated 300,000 people. This book explores the birth of an American Jewish culture that had only tenuous roots in the East.
By examining the life experiences of Jewish men and women who migrated to the West overland and by sea, by covered wagon, ship, and train, who settled in cities and on farms, and who became leaders in the Jewish and larger secular community, this book reveals the contrast between the American image of Jews as eastern urbanites and the reality of the diversity of American Jewish life. The contributors to this volume focus on Jewish settlement in the American West during the era of the Great Migration from the 1840s to the 1920s.
Much of the Jewish story in the West is one of shared experience with non-Jews, based on the many needs people have in common. The essential differences were those of belief and issues of conflict born of bias. The West has always been a land filled with a great variety of environments, resources, and people. There was room for Jewish people along with the hordes of others with differing languages, beliefs, and origins.
Customer Reviews:
Westward migration, settlement, community.......2002-09-06
This oversized illustrated paperback, the catalog for an ambitious exhibition at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage (Los Angeles) combines trenchant historical narrative, essays, and opinion with a treasure trove of photographs, mini-biographies, contemporary descriptions, diary entries, letters, maps, paper arcana and more in order to explain and explore the complex and interesting story of the Jews of the American West. The story begins in the 1880's and ends with the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act, which severely curtailed further Jewish immigration to the US.
James Nottage contributes a Foreword in which he poses the question, Just what is a Westerner? In fact, the American Jewish westward migration was a picture of diversity and variety. Married and unmarried men and women, entire families, and orphans found their way West, often in reaction to economic conditions in the eastern United States, sometimes because of wanderlust or an urge to farm - or just out of curiosity.
Immigrants experienced problems of adjustment and, often, acute isolation. The early years were often difficult. Community had to be built from scratch. One boy wrote to a popular newspaper column," I am all alone in this world, and am an orphan and live out here among the cowboys trying to earn an honest livelihood." Communities in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington were begun, grew, and thrived.
Dr. Kahn contributes two essays. The first, "Looking at America from the West to the East, 1850-1920's" explores Jewish expectations of economic opportunity: the Gold Rush, the fur trade, and opportunities in mercantilism and agriculture. Hasia Diner's "American West, New York Jewish" explores picture of the West as drawn by Easterners, and includes a remarkable "Map of the United States in Yiddish," first published in 1912 in the book "Guide to the United States for the Jewish Immigrant," by John Carr, and published under the auspices of the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution.
Agriculture, the building of community, politics, culture, inevitable class tensions, anti-Semitism, and the various roles of women are explored at length in this exhibition as in its catalog. The names - of people, congregations, and businesses - are here, too. Historical societies and families have provided archival material. Along with seventy illustrations there are census data, notes, and a good index in this smart and moving tour of the historic Jewish American West.
In his Afterword historian M. Rischin asserts that the mandate of the Autry Museum was to "divest the history of the American West of its bunkum and hokum." This book succeeds handily.
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The Secret Alliance: The Extraordinary Story of the Rescue of the Jews Since World War II
Tad Szulc
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of the Ethiopian Jews
ASIN: 0374249466 |
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The story of the secret intelligence network set up to organize illegal immigration operations, which made possible, argues Szulc, the birth of Israel. Based on previously confidential archives, extensive interviews, and private correspondence, The Secret Alliance uncovers the blood-for-money deals with Eichmann, Ceaucescu and Saddam Hussein; secret arms purchases; and the heroic efforts of heroic underground operatives who rescued more than two million Jews after Worl War II.
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Galveston: Ellis Island of the West (Suny Series in Modern Jewish History)
Bernard Marinbach
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
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ASIN: 0873957016 |
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- DNA Evidence, Documents
- Worth every penny
- Don't waste your money
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When Scotland Was Jewish: DNA Evidence, Archeology, Analysis of Migrations, and Public and Family Records Show Twelfth Century Semitic Roots
Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman , and
Donald N. Yates
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Families of Co. Donegal, Ireland
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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
ASIN: 0786428007 |
Product Description
The popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But could it be that a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland's history has been largely ignored or unknown for centuries? This book argues just such a case, maintaining that much of Scotland's history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that much of the population, including several national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers, was of Jewish descent. They describe how the ancestors of these persons originated in France and Spain and then made their way to Scotland's shores, moors, burgs and castles from the reign of Malcolm Canmore to the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition.
It is proposed here that much of the traditional historical account of Scotland rests on fundamental interpretive errors, and that these errors have been perpetuated in order to manufacture and maintain an origin for Scotland that affirms its identity as a Celtic, Christian society. This equation of Scotland with Celtic culture in the popular (and academic) imagination has buried a more accurate and profound understanding of its history. The authors' wide-ranging research includes examination of census records, archaeological artifacts, castle carvings, cemetery inscriptions, religious seals, coinage, burgess and guild member rolls, noble genealogies, family crests, portraiture, and geographic place names.
Customer Reviews:
DNA Evidence, Documents.......2007-09-03
This was a very interesting book that stirs one to question the status quo of written history. DNA studies are confirming oral traditions and rewriting history as we know it. The book includes DNA evidence, Documents and records of the surnames in Scotland, that I have not seen elsewhere. Much more than pictures and what of, like, coulds, maybe.
.Many pictures of Churchs, Cemetary stones, Architecture. A valuable resource for you studies of Scotland and Melungeon Heritage
Worth every penny.......2007-08-01
I requested this book for my birthday present. I have been very pleased with the books I have read written by Elizabeth Hirschman. I am not disapointed with this book. It has very detailed information. (I descend from the McArthurs,Campbells,Stuarts,Farquarsons, Mitches,Watsons, and a long line of High Stewards of Scotland. I also have some Jewish family lines (Brocks, Wideman). My Fridman family was always accused of being Jewish, but DNA testing has proven a Viking,Anglo-Saxson line (unless the I1a Haplogroup, some time in the future, is found to be Hebrew). This book is a very good source of information for the home library. Thank you Elizabeth and Donald.
Janine Lockwood
Don't waste your money .......2007-07-27
If you want to read some history of Europe or some history of Jews in Europe, you can find better books at better prices. If you want to read about the history of Jews in Scotland, this is definitely not the right book. It is so full of could be, like, and maybe, but very little facts. I will give just a couple of ridiculous statements. "He had a hat, beard and large nose and therefore he must have been of Jewish decent." How many people, back when these portraits were done, did not have hats and beards? "They had Hebrew names. Like David, Adam, Jacob, etc." Come on. How many millions of Christians give their children biblical names. This book is a waste of money.
Product Description
The most comprehensive compilation and analysis of Ashkenazic given names ever! This 728-page book identifies more than 15,000 given names derived from just 735 root names. Each root name includes a detailed description of the origin (etymology) of the name, a list of the variant and derivative names displayed in a scheme that reveals how the variants evolved, and references to the more than 15,000 variations of the root names throughout the centuries--some dating back to the 11th century. An index to the 15,000 variations guides you to the proper root name.
Customer Reviews:
not what I hoped.......2007-01-12
I was looking for a regular dictionary of names a la Kolatch's dictionaries of Hebrew names. This book gives great background but is not as easy to use and does not include many names.
Thoroughly well researched and informative!.......2005-02-04
This book is indispensible for anyone who is interested in the names of their parents, grandparents and other ancestors. Beider provides Hebrew spellings, Yiddish pronunciations and historical background for each name as well as English equivalents. I could not have figured out why my grandfather's Hebrew name was Borekh, but his English U.S. name was Benjamin, without this book. A must have for serious genealogists.
Book Description
Millions of immigrants were drawn to American shores, not by the mythic streets paved with gold, but rather by its tables heaped with food. How they experienced the realities of America's abundant food--its meat and white bread, its butter and cheese, fruits and vegetables, coffee and beer--reflected their earlier deprivations and shaped their ethnic practices in the new land.
Hungering for America tells the stories of three distinctive groups and their unique culinary dramas. Italian immigrants transformed the food of their upper classes and of sacred days into a generic "Italian" food that inspired community pride and cohesion. Irish immigrants, in contrast, loath to mimic the foodways of the Protestant British elite, diminished food as a marker of ethnicity. And, East European Jews, who venerated food as the vital center around which family and religious practice gathered, found that dietary restrictions jarred with America's boundless choices.
These tales, of immigrants in their old worlds and in the new, demonstrate the role of hunger in driving migration and the significance of food in cementing ethnic identity and community. Hasia Diner confirms the well-worn adage, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."
Customer Reviews:
a little overcooked.......2007-06-15
I've seen the brand Contadini many times in the grocery store, but I never
knew what it meant. I also never realized that spaghetti isn't really an
Italian food. Ms. Diner included some enlightening facts about the
development of immigrant diets and why certain groups of people felt the
way they did about food coming into this country.
I found the information about Irish food culture, or the lack of it, really
interesting. Unfortunately, that section of the book is unnecessarily
lengthy and repetitive. I learned some valuable and relevant information
from Hungering, but I don't see very many people reading the entire thing
if they just pick it up out of curiosity or a passing interest in the
subject matter.
Editor, Editor...!.......2005-09-01
Unfortunately while this book does try to explore a fascinating and worthwhile subject, it suffers the same predicament that most non-fiction books for the past three decades have fallen under - incompetent editing. The author repeats, and repeats, and repeats, and repeats, and repeats her ideas and observations. Perhaps she was trying to meet a minimum word limit ordained by her publisher but that consideration shouldn't elicit anyone's sympathy. The constant re-iteration of points (and the author's desert-dry "voice" that exacerbates the repetition with its monotonous tone) makes for such a frustrating reading experience that I could not go past the second chapter.
The Predominant Allure of America.......2002-08-29
This is a trully intriguing work about three parallel immigrant cultures, and how hunger for an adequate diet was one of the predominant incentives to them for immigration. What makes this study so interesting is how the importance of food manifested itself so differentially among these separate groups once in the United States based upon the histories of the country of origin.
Being of Irish extraction I learned for the first time, definitively, why unlike my Italian, Jewish, and Latino friends no Irish "ethnic" foods (other than soda bread) were part of my background. And, it helped me to better understand the critical, but differing, importance of food in the Jewish and Italian cultures I grew up along side.
Readers should be advised that this is a serious academic work, one which would be an appropriate college history text. Therefore, the introduction and summary chapters will seem dry and..."academic" to those seeking a purely recreational read. I advise them to walk on the edge and learn something; it's well worth the time invested.
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