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.

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

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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

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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!

The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey

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The timely WWII rescue that saved Curious George for posterity
The Journey That Saved Curious George
Curous George is Saved!
Their journey on bicycles with their children's book manuscripts among their few possessions is recounted here with pictures
A Book for All Ages

The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey
Louise Borden
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618339248

Book Description

In 1940, Hans and Margret Rey fled their Paris home as the German army advanced. They began their harrowing journey on bicycles, pedaling to Southern France with children's book manuscripts among their few possessions. Louise Borden combed primary resources, including Hans Rey's pocket diaries, to tell this dramatic true story. Archival materials introduce readers to the world of Hans and Margret Rey while Allan Drummond dramatically and colorfully illustrates their wartime trek to a new home. Follow the Rey's amazing story in this unique large format book that resembles a travel journal and includes full-color illustrations, original photos, actual ticket stubs and more. A perfect book for Curious George fans of all ages.

Customer Reviews:

The timely WWII rescue that saved Curious George for posterity.......2007-03-08

This will be a present for my nephew George's 37th birthday. He loved
Curious George as a child, and still does. It's wonderful how someone
carries a love for a childhood toy, book, etc. throughout their life.
Such an individual eternally has a special spot in their heart
Kudos to Amazon for providing the book for $5.00 under market price.

The Journey That Saved Curious George.......2007-03-08

I enjoyed reading it and was surprised at all they went through.

Curous George is Saved!.......2007-01-12

This is a great book with historical information. I really enjoyed reading about the authors struggles and survival.

Their journey on bicycles with their children's book manuscripts among their few possessions is recounted here with pictures.......2006-04-11

Curious George is beloved and known by adults and kids around the world - but few have heard of the history of his creators, Hans and Margret Rey, who had to flee their Paris home as the Germans invaded. Their journey on bicycles with their children's book manuscripts among their few possessions is recounted here with pictures, flare and drama. Borden uses primary resources, including Rey's own pocket diaries, to tell their tale in The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape Of Margret And H.A. Rey, with Allan Drummond's drawings and vintage black and white photos throughout enhancing the biography and action.

A Book for All Ages.......2005-11-08

Voila! It was there! A book that I had been waiting to read. On my desk I found The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey by Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond. Oooh, it was a nice looking book!

Everyone remembers Curious George, the mischievous monkey of picture book fame. If we did not read the books as children, we read them to our children. As a parent, I grew rather tired of them. Still, I wanted to read this book about an episode in the authors' lives.

Margret and H. A. Rey were living in Paris at the start of World War II, and being Jewish, were very concerned for their safety. Both had been born in Hamburg and had become a citizen of Brazil, but they had been in France for four years working on children's books. Two manuscripts were ready for publication, one about a penguin names Whiteblack and another about a monkey named Fifi, but the European publishers no longer had paper. The couple's preparations to flee Paris became more serious when the Germans crossed through Belgium and the Netherlands. Getting all the paperwork completed was maddening.

Louise Borden heard the story of the Reys' escape years ago and wanted to know more. She visited de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi to find the Reys' papers, wrote to people who had known the Reys, and traveled to Paris and the towns through which the couple escaped. She enlisted Allan Drummond to illustrate the story.

The result is a fine book for youth and adults. I enjoyed looking at Drummond's rich illustrations, showing the Reys on their bicycles in Paris, with people in their scarves and berets reading newspapers, crowded onto buses, carrying babies, all fleeing as Nazi planes dot the sky. Photos of the Reys, their passports, their day calendars, and other artifacts and illustrations of Curious George and Whiteblack also decorate the pages.

The penguin is really cute. I should read Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World soon.

Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Gb772)

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Sometimes there actually are winners in a war.
Fascinating and deeply moving
A Lesson on Survival
Faith, Hope & Love

Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Gb772)
Nechama Tec
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195035003

Book Description

A story of a young Jewish girl's coming of age during the tragic years of the Holocaust.

Customer Reviews:

Sometimes there actually are winners in a war........2003-03-16

"Dry Tears" is an autobiographical recollection of life in wartime Poland, during the Holocaust. Not only did the author and her sister have to "pass" as non-Jews and live in constant terror of being caught, they also had to worry about their parents, who couldn't "pass" and who lived in hiding.

I've read perhaps a dozen books by Holocaust survivors. This may be the first time that I thought about each individual murder as that: an individual murder, and not as genocide. What happened to the girls' governess in the early pages of the book left me more sleepless than anything since "Anne Frank."

Sometimes, however, there are the occasional winners in a war. The author's family survived as an intact unit. That, dear readers, is a victory.

This book belongs in every historian's library, be it public or personal. Deeply moving, it's not too much for a mature teen to read, and I will be suggesting it to a friend's young adults.

"Dry Tears" will haunt me for a long time.

Fascinating and deeply moving.......2002-11-21

Dry Tears is an unforgettable Holocaust memoir and coming-of age story. Tec is a gifted writer and her comments about her experiences are deeply insightful.

Tec was hidden during the war---disguised as a Polish Christian, she lived with a variety of families before settling with a working-class family who also took in her parents (neither of whom spoke Polish well enough to "pass") and her sister.

What is most interesting (and depressing) about Tec's story is her slow realization that the family who took her in was anti-semetic. As a child, she experiences deep confusion about this and wonders how she should feel when the family compliments her by telling her that she is not "like a Jew." Her conflicted feelings about this family (she grows to love and respect them while at the same time being appalled by their prejudice) illustrate one of the greatest paradoxes regarding prejudices (***). The sad truth is that when one looks behind the stereotype one always discovers individuals who defy the stereotype (Tec herself experiences this---she assumes that one of the woman who takes them in---Stella--is a typically stupid and lazy member of the working class but when Stella is tortured by the Nazis and refuses to eveal any information, Tec is forced to look beyond the stereotype todiscover a very real and very complicated individual).

Tec's story also explores an aspect often not found in books dealing with adults under the Holocaust. As a hidden child who could "pass" as a Polish Christian, Tec spent her days as Krysia, a Polish Gentile. Not surprisingly, this caused her to become deeply confused about who she was---like all pre-teens and adolescents, Tec was struggling to discover her own identity but unlike her peers, Tec was forced to hide this identity.

I have read a great number of Holocaust memoirs---and this is not the "typical" memoir (as far as one can say there is a "typical" memoir). Several factors make this book unique---Tec's age at the time of the Holocaust, her insights into her own experiences (not surprising as Tec later became a scholar specializing in this period) and her openness about her struggle to assume an identity at a time when she was forbidden to assume her true identity.

A Lesson on Survival.......2000-01-04

"Dry Tears" is a memoir of the author during the years she and her family struggled for survival in occupied Poland. After many attempts to escape Nazi officials, they find shelter in a small town under the protection of a peasant Polish family, in exchange for financial benefits. The story is a lesson on faith, of compliance to ever adjusting circumstances in an environment filled with prejudice and ignorance. Well written, with no high literary aspirations, but with a high moral content. This is a must for adolescents and pre-adolescents, and for anyone who is not aware of what it really means to face adverse circumstances in life.

Faith, Hope & Love.......1998-06-03

Dry Tears,dealt with the survival of a Jewish family during the Nazi Holocaust. The story is told by the youngest daughter, Tec, during her pre-adolescent years. If one does not fully comprehend the power of faith, hope and love, then this book is a must. It is a lesson for any family, group or individual who is struggling with circumstances that seem overwhelming or out of control.

Jews And Baseball: Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948

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Jews And Baseball: Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948
Burton A. Boxerman , and Benita W. Boxerman
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786428287
Release Date: 2006-12-27

Product Description

Long before Hank Greenberg earned recognition as baseball's greatest Jewish player, Jews had developed a unique, and very close, relationship with the American pastime. In the late nineteenth century, as both the American Jewish population and baseball's popularity grew rapidly, baseball became an avenue by which Jewish immigrants could assimilate into American culture. Beyond the men (and, later, women) on the field, in the dugout, and at the front office, the Jewish community produced a huge base of fans and students of the game. This important book examines the interrelated histories of baseball and American Jews to 1948-the year Israel was established, the first full season that both major leagues were integrated, and the summer that Hank Greenberg retired. Covered are the many players, from Pike to Greenberg, as well as the managers, owners, executives, writers, statisticians, manufacturers and others who helped forge a bond between baseball and an emerging Jewish culture in America. Key reasons for baseball's early appeal to Jews are examined, including cultural assimilation, rebellion against perceived Old World sensibilities, and intellectual and philosophical ties to existing Jewish traditions. The authors also clearly demonstrate how both Jews and baseball have benefited from their relationship.

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And you never knew.......
A Gorgeous . . . Info Dump
An Interesting account of Jewish life in the South before and during the Civil War.
The Jewish Confederates
Seven Score and Three Years Ago

The Jewish Confederates (NS)
Robert N. Rosen
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1570033633

Book Description

"An eye-opening, myth-shattering, stereotype-breaking work of originality, elegance, and wisdom. A must-read for Civil War buffs, Jewish history fans, and all Americans interested in learning—and you will learn much—about Jewish southerners who placed loyalty to their adopted states above the moral teachings of their tradition (at least as we now interpret them). You may not agree with these Jewish Confederates, but you will surely understand them better." —Alan M. Dershowitz

Rosen N. Rosen's JEWISH CONFEDERATES shows that the breadth and strength of Southern Jews' commitment to the Confederate cause is undeniable. Focusing on the Jewish communities throughout the South, Rosen explains each city's reasons for supporting the cause of Southern independence. Those motivations were as complex as their positions and roles in Southern society.

Profiling the prominent and humble, who volunteered for service, Rosen shows a Confederate army and government remarkably free of anti-Semitism and a Southern leadership, especially Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, without prejudice against the Jews (as opposed to Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman who issued anti-Semitic edicts).

The text is supplemented with 160 photographs and illustrations-- many previously unpublished and recently discovered images contributed by the descendants of Jewish Confederates.

Customer Reviews:

And you never knew..............2007-07-01

....that The Confederacy had Jews. Surprise...A true story: in my exam room, there is always a book on my side table. One day, this was the book; a young girl [I take care of Army Privates] went over and picked it up as if she were touching pork. She informed me that the book was a lie, because there could not possibly have been any Jews in The Confederacy. I pointed to Judah Benjamin's picture among the other Confederate heroes on my wall and told her his story, including the slave owning. She was appalled. She soon knew that the CSA had around 2000 Jews, from Private to Colonel. Then, she asked me the question for which I still have no answer: "How is it that I, a Jew, living in America, don't know that significant a part of my own history?" Sadly, she's a very bright girl, who just didn't know. Much more sadly, BOTH of her parents are history professors. The encounter happened right before Christmas break, and she informed me that she was going to ask her mother about the matter. I gave her several references, and wished her Happy Chanukkah. After the break, she said that her Mom told her that, yes, this is something they knew, but just don't talk about. Look, all of us who deal with history can tell stories of astonishing ignorance. But I've never forgotten that girl; whenever I see ignorance, she reminds me of the obligation that all us who know have to impart [gently] unto those who don't.

Bob Rosen, has, indeed, imparted, and done it superbly. He gives us the story of all the major, and many of the minor, Jews who saluted the Stars and Bars. The two most prominant Jewish Confederates, Judah P. Benjamin, and Phoebe Yates Pember, were civilians, but many wore the gray uniform; Abraham Myers was the Quartermaster General, David DeLeon was the first Surgeon General [Rosen gives the bad with the good; Dr. DeLeon was a drunk, who was soon cashiered]. Major Adolph Proskauer led a charge at Gettysburg, and lived to tell it for many years. Ironically, the two highest ranking Jews killed in the war both fell at Vicksburg, and have monuments near each other. They were Colonels Leon Dawson Marks [Confederate] and Marcus H. Spiegel[Yankee]. Dr. Simon Baruch was a highly respected surgeon during, and after, the war; his son, Bernard, gained fame as a financier. Sgt. Moses Ezekiel was a VMI Cadet who fought at New Market, then was one of the finest sculptors on earth for many years. Many gave much in support; Mrs. Pember's sister, Eugenia Phillips, was a Spy who went to jail twice, and won the hearts of all Southerners by slapping Beast Butler. Rabbis Max Michaelbacher and George Jacobs were central figures in the Richmond religious community. There's even humor here; witness the "damn yankee Jew" asking a child in Norfolk asking a child for a piece of matzoah during The Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Interestingly, while the Yankees had around 10,000 Jews in uniform, and the South 2,000, it was the supposedly "racist" South that had Benjamin and Mrs. Pember. Only The Confederacy put Jews in leadership positions. Robert E. Lee and Jeff Davis strongly, and openly, supported the Jewish community, while Grant and Sherman were stark-raving anti-Semites.

This is not just a great book, it's an artistic masterpiece. Great illustrations, well presented. Bob Rosen deserves all our thanks, even those of a goyim like me. Do not fail to read this book.

A Gorgeous . . . Info Dump.......2007-05-31

This is truly a beautiful book. It occupies a prominent place on my library shelf. The subject matter is fascinating, and important. Considering how Jews came to be treated in the South after the Civil War, the story of how Jews other than Judah Benjamin loyally served the Confederacy most certainly should be told.

For telling this story, Robert Rosen deserves credit. But the writing in The Jewish Confederates is pedestrian at best. Most chapters consist of paragraph after paragraph of short recaps of the military service of people with nothing in common other than being Jewish. Rosen diligently did his research, then regurgitated what he found.

In short, I do recommend this book for those interested in either the history of Jews in America or the Civil War, but do not expect to be captivated -- not an unreasonable expectation given the beautiful cover artwork. You will learn, but it will be a chore. Kind of like school, but there are certainly worse ways to spend some time.

An Interesting account of Jewish life in the South before and during the Civil War........2005-09-23

I've had Jewish friends in Memphis and New Orleans whom I was surprised to learn had Ancestors in the Army of Northern Virgina and the Army of Tennessee. Rosen's book shows that the Civil War truly was a War of Brother against Brother no matter the ties by social status, national origin, or religion.

Rosen has done quite a bit of research and presents his narrative with the recollections, diaries, and letters of the participants and their families and friends. This kind of history by correspondance has always appealed to me more than the memoir type that is carefully thought out later to put the event or individual in the best light.

Rosen presents us with Jews living a normal life in the antebellum South similar to that enjoyed by their White Christian neighbors. The same predjudices and toleration for the "peculiar institution" exist for them as it does for their neighbors but I sense there is more of a toleration amongst this community for the Abolitionists Movement among Antebellum Jews than other groups in the South.

When War comes young men enlist and fight for the same cause as their Christian neighbors and with the same Gallantry. First hand accounts of the struggles and hardships of the War come from the letters soldiers write home to their families.

Rosen presents Jewish Life from the viewpoints of many players from well known Lousiana politician Judah P. Benjamin who held many positions in Jefferson Davis' Cabinet to less well known immigrants from Spain and Germany who started stores in rural Mississippi and Arkansas.

One story that I could not find was that of Sergeant Mordecai Solomon or Solomon Mordecai of Jackson, Mississippi who won the Confederate Medal of Honor at Spotsylvania Court House in 1864 and whose Synagogue was bombed by the KKK 100 years later

The book is a must for Civil War enthusiasts and may be helpful in Geneology research.

The Jewish Confederates.......2004-05-15

The world is full of people who just don't get it, thanks to the ultra-leftist American media. They consider South "the land of bigotry" and portray the War Between the States, as some sort of referendum on slavery and bigotry. In their minds, the thought a Jew in a Confederate uniform is an oxymoron.

Of course, the historical record is as clear as a bell-the so-called "Civil War" was a result of high tariffs and the average Southerner's fear of a new political party that sought even more "tax and spend" polices.

During the antebellum times, Jews were an integral part of the South. A substantial amount of their contribution to the region is still part of the Southern landscape.

When a Jewish friend of mine from the north side of Chicago recently had an opportunity to travel in the South, he was amazed to learn that the South was not the land of anti-Semitism, as the media-dominated northern urban culture had led him to believe. He was also surprised to discover how much evidence of early Jewish influence in the South still remains.

Of course, I recommended that he read The Jewish Confederates to help him put it all into perspective. It really shows that many Jewish men and women were proud citizens of the Confederacy.

Some of the details presented make it clear that many of these brave soldiers of the Confederacy were very serious about their faith and culture. A portion of the book that detail the way the Jewish soldiers were allowed the opportunity to celebrate their holidays was especially enlightening.

It took a lot of courage on the part of Robert N. Rosen to write such a book. In a day and age when many people arrogantly display their ignorance by equating the Confederate flag with racism, Rosen should be considered national hero for having the guts to bring the world the truth.

If it were up to me, Rosen's The Jewish Confederates would be required reading for any program on "multiculturalism." It would also be required reading for every liberal history professor who teaches the era of the War Between the States.

Seven Score and Three Years Ago.......2004-02-16

First, I commend Robert Rosen for his dedication to this subject and for publishing this work. I am sure that it ought to be as controversial as recent books (and film) showing dedication of Blacks to the Southern Cause for Independence. I recall as a child watching the march on Montgomery, the seat of the first Confederate Capitol, before it was moved to Richmond. And had it remained in Montgomery, what then?

Mr. Rosen, an attorney, is clear with his research. Anyone who might wonder why Jews would fight for the Confederacy, or Blacks for that matter, will find this fascinating. Jews from South Carolina, from Louisiana, many of German or Spanish (Sephardic) heritage, were there. I hope that more books, and personal accounts, will follow, from groups whose support for the rights of the States to determine their destinies will be forthcoming. We must learn from history.

Anyone who would hope to understand what it means to be an American should have this book on the shelf, and read it. To paraphrase Shelby Foote, before this war, the United States could only be conceived of as a plurality, after, a singularity. Yet today, we are no doubt in danger of falling into an abyss of pluralism that threatens any kind of national identity. Yet Irishmen fought one another--at Fredericksburg, and elsewhere--as did Jews, and Blacks, and Hispanics--across stone walls at point-blank range, leaving a legacy of maiming of soul and flesh. We have only to look back 3 score years to the bloodbath of Europe to see we are not yet free.

Jews fought for home and hearth, "Pro Aris et Pro Focis"--a common Latin phrase embroidered on flags North and South. In the American South, many Jews found that was worth fighting for against an invasion from afar. That experience unites them with us, today.

Amazon.com

In this understated yet scathing memoir, novelist Rosetta Loy intersperses scenes from her affluent childhood with a broader portrait of anti-Semitism in fascist Italy. The otherwise effective translation has softened Loy's original title (in Italian, "The Word Jew") but not her blistering depiction of the Church's complicity in Mussolini's persecution of Jews. Pope Pius XI, an outspoken opponent of state anti-Semitism, died in early 1939. His successor, Eugenio Pacelli, had been a papal nuncio in Germany for 12 years, where he signed the 1933 concordat that urged German Catholics to obey the Nazis (events analyzed at length in John Cornwell's excellent 1999 biography, Hitler's Pope). As Pius XII, Pacelli said little and did nothing to prevent racist genocide. Born in 1931, Loy was just a girl during this dreadful period, but she does not excuse herself or her family for going about their daily lives while their Jewish neighbors were subjected to increasingly restrictive laws and then, in late 1943, transported to the German death camps. The author also relates stirring acts of moral heroism--Catholic priests who denounced anti-Semitism as un-Christian, individuals who sheltered Jews--but her quietly uncompromising book suggests that her parents, good people who found fascism personally distasteful but felt helpless to defy it, were more typical. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

An internationally acclaimed novelist and journalist movingly chronicles her childhood in Rome during World War II, providing a rare account by a Catholic of Jewish persecution and Papal responsibility

In 1937, Rosetta Loy was a privileged five-year-old growing up in the heart of the well-to-do Catholic intelligentsia of Rome. But her childhood world of velvet and lace, airy apartments, indulgent nannies, and summers in the mountains was also the world of Mussolini's fascist regime and the increasing oppression of Italian Jews. Loy interweaves the two Italys of her early years, shifting with powerful effect from a lyrical evocation of the many comforts of her class to the accumulation of laws stipulating where Jews were forbidden to travel and what they were not allowed to buy, eat, wear, and read. She reveals the willful ignorance of her own family as one by one their neighbors disappeared, and indicts journalists and intellectuals for their blindness and passivity. And with hard-won clarity, she presents a dispassionate record of the role of the Vatican and the Catholic leadership in the devastation of Italy's Jews.

Written in crystalline prose, First Words offers an uncommon perspective on the Holocaust. In the process, Loy reveals one writer's struggle to reconcile her memories of a happy childhood with her adult knowledge that, hidden from her young eyes, one of the world's most horrifying tragedies was unfolding.

Customer Reviews:

A very important book.......2004-01-04

Rosetta Loy opens this book with her first memories of childhood as a young girl in Rome in the early 30s. She then paints the picture from that time to 1943.

This book actually tells two stories - first the account of Rosetta's life during that period of time and second the historical facts of the time.
The entire book impressed me, but two things about this book absolutely AMAZED me.

1. Roessetta Loy's voice. On the first page she is a young girl tended by a nanny, the reader is treated with the perspective of life at this point in time from the unusual view of a curious and intelligent child. As the book progresses and Rossetta ages the story changes in vocabulary and scope.
2. Ms. Loy presents the key points of political and legal changes in her church, city and country with simply clarity. This is the first book that I have read on the subject that didn't attempt go overboard on explanations, excuses or "what ifs". Ms. Loy states the facts of legal changes and racial politics of Italy at the time without attempting to question `how', `why', `to what end' and `what if'. Instead the reader will hear these questions echo in their own mind.

This is a powerful book. It is written in simple style and easy to read. It could be read in a day or two, but if you are like me when you get to the end you will want to read it again.

A Splendid, thought-provoking book!.......2000-08-18

I could not disagree more with the previous "book critic". This book is not a lambasting of individual Catholics or of the many individual priests that helped to save many Jews. One need only look at Ms. Loy's characterization of Pope Pius XI and his very anti-semetic stance to see that this book in no way sees all Catholics as heartless beasts. What it does show is that with the on-slot of Pope Pius XII's reign, the organized Catholic body-politic did nothing privately or publicly to condemn the atrocities committed against Jews at home or abroad in Nazi Germany. There were over 1200 Jews in Rome alone that could have been "hidden" in the Vatican...but no, the response to that was that Pope Pius XII could have been arrested. Getting arrested seems very tame to Jesus being crucified, does it not? All I can say is that, along with the reading of this very touching book by Ms. Loy, I would also recommend everyone out there supplimenting the reading of this book with Mr. Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope".

Another false perpetuation.......2000-08-06

The media seems to be eating up every book that blasts the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII...here's another attempt to cover up the heroics of the Church during the Nazi era....

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Author's extreme anger displaces possibility of resonance
Not the book I thought it would be...
deeply moving personal memoir of race relations in America
Could have been Great
Intense. Just get it, and see for youself what we're talking about.

Ace of Spades: A Memoir
David Matthews
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0805081496
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

A take-no-prisoners tale of growing up without knowing who you are

When David Matthews’s mother abandoned him as an infant, she left him with white skin and the rumor that he might be half Jewish. For the next twenty years, he would be torn between his actual life as a black boy in the ghetto of 1980s Baltimore and a largely imagined world of white privilege.

While his father, a black activist who counted Malcolm X among his friends, worked long hours as managing editor at the Baltimore Afro-American, David spent his early years escaping wicked-stepmother types and nursing an eleven-hour-a-day TV habit alongside his grandmother in her old-folks-home apartment. In Reagan-era America, there was no box marked “Other,” no multiculturalism or self-serving political correctness, only a young boy’s need to make it in a clearly segregated world where white meant “have” and black meant “have not.” Without particular allegiance to either, David careened in and out of community college, dead-end jobs, his father’s life, and girls’ pants.

A bracing yet hilarious reinvention of the American story of passing, Ace of Spades marks the debut of an irresistible and fiercely original new voice.

Customer Reviews:

Author's extreme anger displaces possibility of resonance.......2007-08-21

The last pages of this memoir are beautiful in their simplicity and completeness. The author wraps up the strands of numerous themes in a sentimental manner.

That said, the anger he displays in thought and action in several incidents does cause the reader to wonder if he shares a few similarities with his mother. One of the most grotesque incidents is found on page 258 when he responds to a racial epithet from a child -- a child! -- with an imagined rape of the child.

This is not just a book about racial identity;it is also a man's problem with anger that just as readily could have come from a place before race.

Not the book I thought it would be..........2007-04-18

Ace of Spades is not the book I thought it would be, and surpassed my expectations. Often, memoirs are filled either with extraordinary stories, or with flashy, gimmicky writing to disguise what are actually unremarkable lives. This memoir is literature, in the truest sense, and it's a life-story/worldview unlike any I've ever read. It reminds me of James Baldwin mixed with Larry David mixed with Salinger. If you are looking for "The Color of Water," or some other "movie-of-the-week" account of growing up between racial identities: keep looking. If you are looking for for a story of growth, humor, heartbreak, alienation and hope, pick it up.

deeply moving personal memoir of race relations in America.......2007-04-12

This book is gut-wrenching. Filled with both humorous and tragic personal anecdotes about growing up biracial in 80s Baltimore when "black" and "white" were the only categories allowed, David chose, at a very young age & before he could even be aware of the implications of his decision, to pass for white. There are so many heartbreaking episodes in the book, dealing with the brutality he faced from other boys at school, and the romantic disappointments with girls, that it is very traumatic to read (so one can only imagine how traumatic it was to live). David's self-deprecating humor, sweetness and charm make this book impossible to put down (I read the entire thing in one sitting). As the author is about my age I kept thinking about what race relations were like in my own hometown/high school during the same period (and even now). Never a bastion of hippie liberalism, most of my hometown's mixed-race marriages were (or always seemed to be) made up of working-class white girls and black men. That has changed a lot since the influx of Hispanic workers into the area in the 1990s. It seems most of the middle class and working class white girls who intermarry are now being siphoned off by the young Mexican men -- it is now quite common to see blond girls with baby strollers and Mexican husbands in tow in my neighborhood, although to be honest there is also one black-white couple down the street from my home as well. It will be interesting to see how (and if) Hispanic migration will continue to affect the racial mix in the midwest/south and elsewhere. The best books make you reflect deeply on your own life and your own attitudes, and this book is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. This book blew my mind, and introduced me to the experiences of multiracial people in our society, that I was only very marginally aware of before, even though I am sure I have met many. I attended a book fair in which the author was present and he told the room there would be a sequel in the works (soon I hope!), as well as a first novel to be published (I think he said in 2009?). I look forward to reading many more books by this amazing writer. HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 5 stars.

Could have been Great.......2007-03-13

David Matthews is to be commended for a naked account of growing up straddling the old American color line in Baltimore, a de facto segregated city during the 70s and 80s. And his courage in confessing to sins in mind and deed, cross burning (which, for the record, I didn't believe), fantasies of raping a white child after his black parentage is revealed, the patent neglect suffered by the family dog, might be lauded except that, after a while, the forays into telling the whole truth and nothing but seem more like an exercise in self-indulgence rather than edification for the reader on the subject/s at hand.

If only he wrote this book in the way he talks; I heard a radio interview with him where he proved himself to be a great and arresting story-teller, and whenever he decides to cover in his book the inner workings of someone passing for white/black, he is a fascinating subject, but when Matthews describes in excruciating detail, universally-experienced adolescent sexual yearnings, the book is painful to read and sometimes embarrassing. Matthews may be exceptional in his experiences of "passing" for white on the late 20th century color line, but he is no exotic when it comes to youthful animal lust. In this book, there's far too much of the latter, which is used as provocative filler to make up for a lack of material on the former.

Having grown up lower middle class (but in New York City) during the same period of time as Matthews, and experienced post Civil Rights Era predation from blacks, and as a product of the white paternalist approach in public school education, as a latter-day multi-racial myself, I feel a bit let down by the absence of a real exercise into exploring the particular subject of race relations in modern day America.

Matthews possesses a great skill for observation, of the kind that doesn't surface much in books these days, of the sense-memory, finely-detailed sort, covering both the mundane (too much) and extraordinary (too little), that one readily associates with recondite late 19th century literature. But, unfortunately, like the late 19th c. writers of said recondite literature, Matthews indulges in a bad habit of overwriting. A lot. His abuse of forgotten or underused words of the English language (like "anent" and "etiolate"), and also an inclination towards the Joycian habit of liberal use of classical foreign terms -- and in these modern times when strapped schools no longer offer French and German, along with the Latin and Italian, so that we may fully decipher Matthews' full meaning it seems a hostile act of author placing himself at an elitist distance from his reader -- the story is not then served as it should be. (I laughed out loud as I shook my head in wonderment, after suffering the inevitable reference to the schadenfreude, and the sprinklings of latin and french throughout, that he had the temerity to criticize a genuine German woman's use of the common word for backpack: rucksack!)

After a while, his prose does not dazzle as the author surely intended --the story becoming bogged down in winking asides -- but reveals insecurity, and then it just irritates. And Matthews, whose self-love/loathing is always in evidence, comes across as an insufferable Grade A jerk. Take for example this statement about his black journo father, who, for the record, is never fully drawn in the story:

"...nonetheless I bestowed a dim veneration upon my father's metier, the way one detachedly esteems a haberdasher, or a first timpanist."

The narrative is chock full of such exhibitionism and head-scratching metaphors; I mean, did one ever detachedly esteem haberdashers? My understanding of history is that good haberdashers were held in high regard.

I wish he'd not have opted for the footnotes containing opinions stated as fact, or a lazy impulse to provoke -- like lumping Hanukkah in with Kwanzaa and Earth Day as inferior holidays to Christmas.

Matthews proves himself an able mimic. Does he ever stop to wonder why this might be? Mimickry was a form of survival in slavery times, for a variety of reasons and better discussed outside of this review, but this interesting trait is not explored, and Matthews doesn't seem to have much of an interest in his own backstory at all, which would have been an invaluable and redeeming addition to "Ace of Spades", nor does he have much of an interest in other members of his family as individuals, apart from his need or want of them. History is what's sorely lacking here, and it's a requirement for this story. As Bob Marley said, and I paraphrase, 'If you don't know your history, then you don't know where you're coming from, and then you wouldn't have to ask me, who the h*&^ do I think I am.' Why didn't he ever try to discover all his people so that he might better explain the inner workings within, and also understand better his experiences of life lived on the color line?

There's a lost opportunity here. And this is a shame, for Matthews has all the right stuff, yes, he's a bright bulb indeed, and he's got material rich for mining. I have hopes for a reworked second edition, but judging by the other (glowing) reviews here, I am the loup seul and as such my words should be taken with un grain du sel.

That said, I do wish Mr. Matthews much success. There's a dearth of material covering this important American social history out there.

Bottomline: When revealing the unsettling state of black and white relations of the inner city environment in "Ace of Spades", Matthews is at the top of his form. There should be much more of that and less of the sexual yearning revelations in this modern memoir.

Intense. Just get it, and see for youself what we're talking about........2007-03-10

Ace of Spades by David Matthews... I must pause before writing this review to thoroughly gather my thoughts about this intense, sweet, brutal, entertaining, bitingly witty, suspenseful, ugly, beautiful story. The book is challenging on many levels. The vocabulary, on occasion, is daunting, to say the least. The subject matter of race in society, in and of itself, is difficult to look at... honestly. The recollections of the author, the thoughts surrounding the stories of his life, are, at times, difficult stories to embrace due to their harshness and vulgarity. All of this makes for a challenging read. With that said, after finishing the book, I found myself moved beyond what I'd expected. The final chapters put things in perspective for me. All at once, I was able to understand and appreciate the author, and they way in which he chose to tell his story, in a much different light. I, also, had a sense that this was a very important book, and was grateful to have read it. In my opinion, the author's unique perspective and experience with racism and bigotry is an invaluable point of view that needs to be heard in the current discussion of racism and bigotry in America.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,"
worthy work of an unjustly neglected figure
Universal Interest
A Woman I Would Like You to Know

Emma Lazarus (Jewish Encounters)
Esther Schor
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0805242163
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Book Description

Emma Lazarus’s most famous poem gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but her remarkable life has remained a mystery until now. She was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with her–a feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish American writer before thse categories even existed.

Drawing upon a cache of personal letters undiscovered until the 1980, Esther Schor brings this vital woman to life in all her complexity. Born into a wealthy Sephardic family in 1849, Lazarus published her first volume of verse at seventeen and gained entrée into New York’s elite literary circles. Although she once referred to her family as “outlaw” Jews, she felt a deep attachment to Jewish history and peoplehood. Her compassion for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europe–refugees whose lives had little in common with her own–helped redefine the meaning of America itself.

In this groundbreaking biography, Schor argues persuasively for Lazarus’s place in history as a poet, an activist, and a prophet of the world we all inhabit today–a world that she helped to invent.

Customer Reviews:

"Give me your tired, your poor,".......2007-06-22

Interesting book about activist and poet Emma Lazarus, the lady who wrote the Statue of Liberty poem. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

worthy work of an unjustly neglected figure.......2006-10-23

A worthwhile biography by a scholar who blends critical insight with sheer enthusiasm in a very appealing manner. By the late 1870s and 1880s, Browning, Whitman, Henry James, Emerson (the latter two among her many ardent correspondents) and many others had all praised Emma Lazarus's groundbreaking translations of Heine as well as her own verse that appeared in Lippincott's and the Century. But she was fated to be memorialized exclusively for "The New Colossus," her great paean to American largesse, and by Jewish Americans for the few years of poetry, essays and political activity dedicated to their cause. Representative of this trend, Henrietta Szold (1860-1945) would celebrate her as "the most distinguished literary figure produced by American Jewry and possibly the most eminent poet among Jews since Heine and Judah Loeb Gordon." Certainly as far as Jewish women of Szold's generation are concerned, Lazarus demonstrated previously unimagined ways of intervening in American public culture. Nevertheless, her achievements have been largely forgotten; among late twentieth century scholars, Lazarus's contribution to Jewish-American history has been condescendingly noted at best. Though Lazarus played a significant proto-Zionist role, she is even ignored in major studies of American Zionism. And yet to fully understand the unusual literary and polemical pedigree of American Zionism, one must begin with a careful consideration of Lazarus's assimilationist strategies--and an acknowledgement of her cultural force. By far the most influential Jewish-American literary figure of the nineteenth century, Lazarus's reflections on the status of the Jew in gentile society and on the question of the Jews' return to Palestine offer a rich literary and historical context for examining later imaginative responses to the perpetually conflicted nature of Zionism in America.

Readers who want to explore Lazarus's poetic vision in greater depth may be interested in Ranen Omer-Sherman's Diaspora and Zionism in Jewish American Literature (Brandeis UP 2002)which at times offers a deeper engagement with the poems themselves than Schor attempts. Omer-Sherman explores the poet's lack of complete confidence in the viability of Jewishness in America and demonstrates how Lazarus was torn between her belief in universalism and her proto-Zionist program, between her desire to assimilate and her pained recognition of her marginality in the wake of Emerson's rejection of her work. As for the poems themselves, the best available one is Emma Lazarus: Selected Poems and Other Writings edited by Gregory Eiselein.

Universal Interest.......2006-10-23

Esther Schor has done us all a great favor by her exploration of a "forgotten" figure in American history.

We all know the poem at the Statue of Liberty - certainly the last lines of it. And yet very few people know who wrote it, or what its historical context was. As is the case with many deeply ingrained elements of culture, this poem is assumed to emerged whole from a member of our citizen community.

We learn here that Emma was a very, very remarkable woman. Long before women in American had anything approaching "equal rights," she asserted herself into many political dialogues and won recognition for the intellectual strength of women in America.

Her life is instructive to us all - I learned a lot from this book, which is engagingly written and a real exploration of a vital element of our national culture. It's especially poignant in the current political debate about restricting immigration from Mexico...

A Woman I Would Like You to Know.......2006-10-10

With the words of the title of this review, Esther Schor introduces the reader to Emma Lazarus (1849 -1887)in her newly-published biography of this late-nineteenth Century American poet, essayist, novelist, critic, and social activist for newly-arrived immigrants. Schor is Professor of English at Princeton University, a poet in her own right, and the editor of the Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Her biography of Emma Lazarus is part of a series of books called "Jewish Encounters" edited by Jonathan Rosen and "devoted to the promotion of Jewish literature, culture, and ideas."

Emma Lazarus is known to most readers only as the author of the sonnet "The New Colossus" which ultimately achieved iconic status with its inscription on the Statue of Liberty. But there is much more to Emma Lazarus than this great poem, as Schor convincingly demonstrates.Schor writes in an accessible, colloquial style that shows great affection and understanding for Lazarus. Although Schor's book includes a substantial amount of analysis of Lazarus's literary work, the focus of the book lies in bringing Emma Lazarus herself to life. Schor's biography, while not constituting the last word on Emma Lazarus, fulfills its goal of showing why Lazarus is worth knowing. Even with this book, and other studies of Emma Lazarus, she remains a complex and elusive figure.

Lazarus was born to an assimilated family of wealthy New York Jews who had lived in the United States for at least four generations. Lazarus received an outstanding private education and became known as a prodigy when her first volume of poems, written between the ages of 14 and 16 was published by her father. As a young woman, Emma Lazarus attracted the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson and had a complicated relationship with him, as Schor discusses at length. Lazarus visited Emerson in Concord twice near the end of his life and became friends with his daughter Ellen. Lazarus was a highly connected woman with friends, male and female, among the most culturally and politically influential people in the United States.

Lazarus made impressive contributions to poetry besides "The New Colossus" and wrote influential essays and reviews as well. Her best work, such as "The New Colossus" deals with her vision of America and with the place of Judaism in the United States. In fact her work tends to fuse together these two subects. As Schor suggests, Emma Lazarus became the first of what would become a long series of Jewish-American writers who would try to express what they deemed to be the ideals of Judaism in secular and literary rather than in traditionally religious terms. Schor argues that Lazarus's work shows an interpenetration of American and Jewish ideals, with America providing freedom, liberty, and economic and cultural opportunity, while Jewish ideals expanded upon concepts of social justice and ethics within the American framework.

Schor argues that there was a Jewish undercurrent to Lazarus's works from its earliest stages, beginning with her poem "In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport." Lazarus translated Heine and medieval Jewish poets, and, in 1881 published a volume of poetry titled "Songs of a Semite" which expanded upon Jewish themes. She wrote influential essays which exposed anti-semitism and the Russian Pogroms and considered the meaning of Judaism in American. She worked actively for the well-being of Jewish immigrants to the United States and was among the first to champion the idea of a homeland for Jews in what was then Palestine to escape the ravages of European anti-semitism.

Lazarus remained secular throughout her life, and her own religious convictions can, I think best be described as a sort of nebulous theism. She described herself as an "outsider" to both Judaism and Christianity and, as Schor points out, anticipated the choices and the ambiguities that many American Jews struggle with today in considering their own relationship to Judaism. The complexities of Lazarus's views of Judaism are well-illustrated in a poem she wrote late in her life, "By the Waters of Babylon", the first prose-poem to be written in English. Schor gives a good analysis of this poem, and of many others.

As Schor emphasizes, Lazarus was a paradoxical figure in that she never lost her aristocratic, bearing as a member of America's privileged class and yet worked tirelessly for the health, education and culture of the new immigrants and, with her poem on the Statue of Liberty, redefined the meaning of this national symbol before it was even constructed. For all her activism, Lazarus never quite lost her basic conservatism -- a paradoxical combination that I continue to find fascinating. Emma Lazarus also remains difficult as a person, behind the ambiguities of her friendships with men and women and her Victorian reserve. Lazarus never married. She wrote, but did not publish, a remarkably suggestive sonnet, titled "Assurance" which for many readers, offers insight into Lazarus's own sexuality.

Emma Lazarus has been an inspiration to me for her vision of the United States and for her commitment to an ethical, active Judaism with a deeply secular cast. Schor's book will introduce the reader to an American writer who deserves increased recognition. Schor's book also includes an excellent sampling of Lazarus's poetry. Readers who would like to read more of Emma Lazarus may be interested in the selection of her poetry titled "Emma Lazarus" edited by John Hollander in the American Poets Project series of the Library of America.

Robin Friedman

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not about film editing

A Guide to Documentary Editing
Mary-Jo Kline , and Linda Johanson
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801856868

Book Description

First published in 1987 and widely acclaimed, A Guide to Documentary Editing is now available in a new and completely revised edition. Drawing on the experience of dozens of editorial projects, the author details every step of the editing process as now practiced in the electronic information age -- planning a project, organizing materials, evaluating and transcribing texts, applying textual and editorial conventions, and preparing the edition for the publisher. The author even makes cautious predictions about future forms of electr