Ivan R. Dee – serie

This new collection of essays by the author of Life at the Bottom bears the unmistakable stamp of Theodore Dalrymple's bracingly clearsighted view of the human condition. In these pieces, Dr. Dalrymple ranges over literature and ideas, from Shakespeare to Marx, from the breakdown of Islam to the legalization of drugs. Here is a book that restores our faith in the central importance of literature and criticism to our civilization. Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William Carlos Williams. —Peggy Noonan. Includes When Islam Breaks Down, named the best journal article of 2004 by David Brooks of the New York Times.

This is the poignant memoir of a man who has spent most of his lifetime immersed in the evidence of one of the great horrors in human history. It is both a record of how it affected him and a revelation of the surprising ways in which his monumental work was received by his contemporaries. Even after thirty-five years, Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews remains the most distinguished and comprehensive analysis of the Nazi destruction process. Yet at the time it was written, as Mr. Hilberg recounts in The Politics of Memory, both the manuscript and its subject matter were rejected by major publishers and university presses; and in the wake of publication the author faced a hostile reception from those who refused to believe that the Jews were less than heroic in their journey to the gas chambers. How his study was used and abused—especially by Hannah Arendt, Lucy Dawidowicz, and Nora Levin—draws Mr. Hilberg's attention, as does the more admiring reception for Destruction in Europe than in America. The Politics of Memory brings full circle a scholarly enterprise that in many ways has been a terrible calling. A courageous, powerful portrait of one scholar's self-directed search for truth. —Toronto Globe and Mail

At a crucial point in the twentieth century, as Nazi Germany prepared for war, negotiations between Britain, France, and the Soviet Union became the last chance to halt Hitler’s aggression. Incredibly, the French and British governments dallied, talks failed, and in August 1939 the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany. Michael Carley’s gripping account of these negotiations is not a pretty story. It is about the failures of appeasement and collective security in Europe. It is about moral depravity and blindness, about villains and cowards, and about heroes who stood against the intellectual and popular tides of their time. Some died for their beliefs, others labored in obscurity and have been nearly forgotten. In 1939 they sought to make the Grand Alliance that never was between France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. This story of their efforts is background to the wartime alliance created in 1941 without France but with the United States in order to defeat a demonic enemy. 1939 is based upon Mr. Carley’s longtime research on the period, including work in French, British, and newly opened Soviet archives. He challenges prevailing interpretations of the origins of World War II by situating 1939 at the end of the early cold war between the Soviet Union, France, and Britain, and by showing how anti-communism was the major cause of the failure to form an alliance against Hitler. 1939 was published on September 1, the sixtieth anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the start of the war.

Documents from the late FBI director's secret files reveal for the first time the shocking extent of FBI activities in spying on prominent Americans and political groups. A grimly fascinating—and profoundly disturbing—self-exposure by one of the false American deities of the 20th century. —Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Fifteen brilliant essays on the kind of culture created by the magic of the marketplace in 1980s America, from architecture to the yuppie ascendancy. Amusing, caustic and cleverly written....What makes Culture in an Age of Money fun to read is its refreshing candor. —New York Times

For decades the most frightening example of bigotry and hatred in America, the Ku Klux Klan has usually been seen as a rural and small-town product–an expression of the decline of the countryside in the face of rising urban society. Kenneth Jackson's important book revises conventional wisdom about the Klan. He shows that its roots in the 1920s can also be found in burgeoning cities among people who were frightened, dislocated, and uprooted by rapid changes in urban life. Many joined the Klan for sincere patriotic motives, unaware of the ugly prejudice that lay beneath the civic rhetoric. Mr. Jackson not only dissects the Klan's activities and membership, he also traces its impact on the public life of the twenties. In many places—from Atlanta to Dallas, from Buffalo to Portland, Oregon—the Klan agitated politics, held immense power, and won elective office. The Ku Klux Klan in the City is a continuing and timely reminder of the tensions and antagonisms beneath the surface of our national life. "Comprehensively researched, methodically organized, lucidly written...a book to be respected."—Journal of American History.

The year 1964 produced a watershed in American race relations. In one of the civil rights movement's most dramatic initiatives, thousands of Northern white college students were recruited to come south that summer in an effort to "break" Mississippi and secure voting rights for its black citizens. Nicolaus Mills traces the history of this Summer Project, including its origins and aftermath, and shows in detail how its consequences involved not only great victories but also violence (the murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, among other events) and disillusion. His persuasive argument is that the noble quest for racial solidarity turned bitter and divisive in practice, climaxed by the Democratic party's rejection of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats at the 1964 national convention. In the rush of black anger that followed, the gains of the summer were forgotten and Black Power was born—and blacks went their separate way in trying to achieve equality in America. Relations between whites and blacks took a crucial turning which continues powerfully to influence our politics and social well-being today.

This majestic history of Jerusalem is the first to bring together in a single volume the experiences of the three great religions in the holy city from their ancient beginnings to the present. It is history in the grand manner, an absorbing saga of prophets, priests, and pilgrims, kings and conquerors; the story of a city besieged, defended, conquered, damaged or destroyed, and rebuilt forty times in thirty centuries—always in the name of God. Mr. Idinopulos's narrative is as rich, intricate, and spectacular as a religious tapestry. "A massive and impressive work ... sublime, thrilling, and anguished history."—R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "A splendidly told tale, which succeeds against great odds in providing a clear, balanced, and lively history of one of the most complicated cities in the world."—Kirkus Reviews. "A prodigious and imposing work."—Booklist. "Intelligent and compassionate."—New York Times Book Review. "A brilliantly balanced and comprehensive introduction to the Holy City-in history, tradition, and politics."—Middle East Journal.

The intimacy of the one-ring circus produced the classic clown routines that flourished until the mid-twentieth century and then disappeared with the rise of the grand circus. They have been lost until now. By seeking out the little band of surviving clowns who worked in the old tradition and setting down their scenes, Tristan Rémy, the eminent circus historian, has rescued a theatrical treasure. Thanks to Rémy's persistence, the forty-eight scenes presented here contain not only the spoken words but the manner of line delivery and the physical turns. So they remain superbly suitable for performance. Most of them are written for just three actors—the white-faced clown, August the stooge, and the supercilious ringmaster. Sets are unnecessary. And their combination of the verbal with the physical has timeless appeal. Bernard Sahlins's translation is masterfully attuned to present-day audiences. In his foreword, Mr. Sahlins notes that these scenes have been continually remounted in Europe, attesting to their fundamental vitality and universality. “Clearly there is a debt, witting and unwitting, owed to the clown of the ring by the great comedians of our century. With this book these scenes and the clowns who invented and played them now take their honored place in our theatrical legacy.”

The public guardian of Cook County, Illinois, charges that the child welfare bureaucracy, designed to help children, is instead helping to destroy them. Murphy explains the facts and failures of the child welfare system—and offers solutions—better than any expert I've ever read on the subject....A first-rate read—poignant and instructive. —Edward I. Koch

Being Positive gives us the clearest picture we have of what life is like for people who have been diagnosed HIV positive. Based upon unique in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of patients, the book is remarkable for its candor and compassionate analysis. The people speak for themselves. “Through these pages,” Robert Klitzman writes, “I have tried to present a picture—a group portrait—and a sense of the fabric and texture of these individual’s lives. Their stories taught me much about how people find meaning and cope with apparently overwhelming difficulties.” In looking for patterns in these lives, Dr. Klitzman has focused first on the problems these new patients face—the uncertainties, losses, and taboos; then on how they adapt—their new life in “HIV-land,” their spiritual beliefs, work and volunteerism, family relations, drugs and sex, and denial psychology. Finally he considers the implications of this major new medical problem and how it has forced us to examine so many personal, political, and institutional issues surrounding illness and the threat of death. Being Positive is not only a humanizing antidote to statistical studies of HIV and AIDS, it is an important benchmark in understanding the lives and experiences of the people who are affected.

Despite all the thousands of studies of the Holocaust and the rise of Nazi Germany, we still have no satisfactory explanation of why this tragedy occurred in one of the most "civilized" of Western nations. John Weiss's Ideology of Death is the first book to explore the unique nature of German history, showing how it rejected the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment, and to trace the culture of racism and anti-Semitism among powerful elites and ordinary Germans over a long period of German history. In a stunningly lucid narrative, Weiss describes exactly how and why Christian anti-Semitism, in its unique form among German Protestants and Austrian Catholics, reinforced modern secular racism to create an explosive mix. Using the latest research, he details how the Nazis, building on traditional German anti-Semitism, were able to adjust it so as to appeal to a wide variety of social groups–crucial to their electoral success. And he explains the specific complicities of various German groups and institutions in the Holocaust, and why they voluntarily cooperated with the Nazis. In its clarity and compelling argument, Ideology of Death is certain to be one of the most important books for many years to come on the reasons behind the Holocaust.

This careful examination of key strategies, events, and personalities in the conflict sheds fresh light on the high points of the Vietnam experience and punctures the enduring mythologies of the war. A model of lucid writing and fair judgement. —Thomas Powers

Imagine walking into the White House between 1861 and 1865. Would you have been allowed to see the president? With no titles or accolades attached to your name, would he have talked with you? And if so, how would you have felt afterward about his dignity, intelligence, and character? Scores of individuals met President Lincoln and recorded their impressions. In this charming and affecting book, Victoria Radford has selected the most interesting of these recollections, which together add luster to the image of an American icon. “The people who met Abraham Lincoln found in some way a different man than expected,” Ms. Radford writes. “Some people were surprised by his appearance, that this haphazard and untidy man was indeed president. Some were surprised at his generosity, that he would take the time to see them and listen to their stories. Some were surprised by his kindness, that he would offer help and kind words whenever he could. Some were surprised by his compassion and mercy, and some by his simple dignity and grace. And many were surprised at how they felt in Lincoln’s presence, that his sincerity and ease of manner set them at their ease, so that they forgot they were even talking to a president.” Even Lincoln buffs will find Meeting Mr. Lincoln a surprise and delight. Illustrated with photographs and engravings.

A narrative account of the fight to regulate alcohol, from roughly 1800 to the repeal of national prohibition in 1933. An intriguing tale of social reform and of the limits of government-imposed morality. The best short history available of the politics and practices of American temperance reform....Highly recommended. —Library Journal. American Ways Series.

The resident repertory company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, affiliated with Harvard and known as the American Repertory Theatre, has long been considered one of the country’s most innovative cultural resources. The quality of its productions and the issues it has raised about the nature of the creative life have distinguished it among American theatre groups. Here is a treasury of criticism, reflection, observation, and insight from the ART’s post-production symposia, and pre-show talks, illustrated with photographs and drawings from ART archives. The notable contributors include a great many brilliant poets, novelists, dramatists, critics, scholars, lawyers, theatre directors, designers, and clowns, many of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. Whether Susan Sontag reflects on Milan Kundera’s Jacques and His Master, or Jonathan Miller on Sheridan’s School for Scandal, or Jan Kott on Hamlet, or Carlos Fuentes on Calderon’s Life is a Dream, or Derek Walcott on his musical Steel, or Harold Bloom on Ibsen’s Hedda Gabbler, or Anatole Smeliansky on Bulgakov’s Black Snow, the discourse is heightened and passionate. The book also includes revealing interviews with major theatrical figures—Dario Fo, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Andrei Serban, David Mamet, and many others—and lively articles from the ART’s founding artistic director Robert Brustein, its managing director Robert J. Orchard, and a variety of literary directors and dramaturges. In all, The Lively A.R.T. is a bountiful theatre experience, better than two on the aisle.

A vivid portrait of Rubens's enormous life against a background of the turbulent history of his times. Without neglecting his paintings, Ms. Lescourret also gives the reader a fascinating picture of Rubens's career as an accomplished diplomat.