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Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich
Par Eric Kurlander. 2017
&“A dense and scholarly book about . . . the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult . .…
. reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.&”—Daily Telegraph The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler&’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich&’s relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire. &“[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.&”—The Washington Post &“Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.&”—The Spectator &“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.&”—The Times &“A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism.&”—Kirkus Reviews &“Kurlander provides a careful, clear-headed, and exhaustive examination of a subject so lurid that it has probably scared away some of the serious research it merits.&”—National ReviewChurchill's American Network: Winston Churchill and the Forging of the Special Relationship
Par Cita Stelzer. 2024
A revelatory portrait showing how the famed British statesman created a network of American colleagues and friends who helped push…
our foreign policy in Britain&’s favor during World War IIWinston Churchill was the consummate networker. Using newly discovered documents and archives, Churchill&’s American Network reveals how the famed British politician found a network of American men and women who would push American foreign policy in Britain&’s direction during World War II—while at the same time producing lucrative speaking fees to support his lavish lifestyle. Stelzer has gathered contemporary local newspaper reports of Churchill&’s lecture tours in many American cities, as well as interactions with leaders of local American communities—what he said in public, what he said at private meetings, how he comported himself. Readers observe Churchill as he is escorted by an armed Scotland Yard detective, aided by local police when Indian nationalists threaten to assassinate him, while he travels in deluxe private rail cars provided by wealthy members of his network; and as he recovers from a near-death automobile crash—with the help of liquor prescribed by a friendly doctor with no use for Prohibition. The links in Churchill&’s network include some of fascinating American figures: the millionaire financier Bernard Baruch; the railroad magnate, Averell Harriman, who became an FDR-Churchill go-between; media moguls William Randolph Hearst (and wife and mistress); Robert R. McCormick—who attacked Churchill&’s policies but enjoyed his company—and Charles Luce, who made him TIME&’s Man of the Year and later Man of the Century; and bit players such as Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, and David Niven. It is no accident that Churchill was able to put these links together into an important network that served to his, and Britain&’s, advantage. He worked at it relentlessly, remaining in close contact with his American friends by letter, signed copies of his many books, and by attending to their needs when they were in Britain. Many of these colleagues were invited to dinners at Chartwell and, later, Downing Street. Perhaps most importantly, Churchill&’s network of American allies had Franklin Roosevelt&’s ear while the president was deciding how to overcome opposition in congress to helping Britain take on the threat from Germany.Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne
Par Carole C. Marks. 2008
This engaging history presents the extraordinary lives of Patty Cannon, Anna Ella Carroll, and Harriet Tubman, three "dangerous" women who…
grew up in early-nineteenth-century Maryland and were vigorously enmeshed in the social and political maelstrom of antebellum America. The "monstrous" Patty Cannon was a reputed thief, murderer, and leader of a ruthless gang who kidnapped free blacks and sold them back into slavery, whereas Miss Anna Ella Carroll, a relatively genteel unmarried slaveholder, foisted herself into state and national politics by exerting influence on legislators and conspiring with Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks to keep Maryland in the Union when many state legislators clamored to join the Confederacy. And, of course, Harriet Tubman--slave rescuer, abolitionist, and later women's suffragist--was both hailed as "the Moses of her people" and hunted as an outlaw with a price on her head worth at least ten thousand dollars. All three women lived for a time in close proximity on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, an isolated region that thrived on tobacco and then lost it, procured slaves and then lost them, and produced strong-minded women and then condemned them. Though they never actually met, and their backgrounds and beliefs differed drastically, these women's lives converged through their active experiences of the conflict over slavery in Maryland and beyond, the uncertainties of economic transformation, the struggles in the legal foundation of slavery and, most of all, the growing dispute in gender relations in America. Throughout this book, Carole C. Marks gleans historical fact and sociological insight from the persistent myths and exaggerations that color the women's legacies, and she investigates the common roots and motivations of three remarkable figures who bucked the era's expectations for women. She also considers how each woman's public identity reflected changing ideas of domesticity and the public sphere, spirituality, and legal rights and limitations. Cannon, Carroll, and Tubman, each in her own way, passionately fought for the future of Maryland and the United States, and from these unique vantage points, Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne portrays the intersecting and conflicting forces of race, economics, and gender that threatened to rend a nation apart.People Who Lunch: On Work, Leisure, and Loose Living
Par Sally Olds. 2024
A riveting investigation of the utopian experiments attempting to resist the unrelenting demands of late-stage capitalism—only to end up living…
comfortably alongside it What do post‑work politics, the cult of crypto, clubbing, and polyamory have in common? All have spawned thriving subcultures united in their rejection of the patriarchal capitalist order: from wage labor, to the reign of the shareholder class over capital markets, to romantic relationships that feel like contractual arrangements to be negotiated, and more.People Who Lunch is about hating work and needing to work, intimacy and technology, labor and leisure, and the challenge of living our ideals in a less than ideal world. In it, Sally Olds brings her &“unsparing scrutiny to bear…as she grapples with the sense of entrapment in the machinery of capitalism and remorseless logic of commodification&” (ABC Arts). In one essay, Olds&’s brief flirtation with post-monogamy forces her to confront the emotional prison of the &“open relationship&”; in another, a multi-hour viewing of a critically acclaimed performance art piece highlights how even the highest forms of culture exist to convert pleasure into capital. In the end, her forays into these colorful worlds betray a deep irony: escaping a system built on the exchange of wage labor is, quite simply, a lot of work.Not Yet: The Story of an Unstoppable Skater
Par Zahra Lari, Hadley Davis. 2024
A universal story about courage and determination that is loosely based on the life of five-time Emirati National Champion, Zahra…
Lari, who was the first figure skater to compete internationally in a hijab.After watching an ice-skating movie, young Zahra sets her mind to learn how to ice skate even though her family and friends doubt her abilities. After all, she's too old to learn, the rink is too cold, and figure skaters don't look like her... not yet at least! Illustrated with Sara Alfageeh's energetic lines and colors that pop right off the page, we follow Zahra's story as she glides across the floors of her house in her socks all the way to the ice rink... and as she repeatedly says ''not yet'' to naysayers -- including herself -- who try to convince her to stop pursuing her dream. An inspiring tale of self-empowerment and perseverance as we see the refrain -- not yet -- grow from a low, meek mumble to a mantra and promise filled with determination.I'll Just Be Five More Minutes: And Other Tales from My ADHD Brain
Par Emily Farris. 2024
A hilariously-honest, heartwarming essay collection about life, love, and discovering you have ADHD at age 35 Despite being a…
published writer with a family, a gaggle of internet fans, and (most shockingly) a mortgage, Emily Farris could never get her sh*t together. As she saw it, disorganization was one of her countless character flaws—that is until she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 35. Like many girls who go undiagnosed, Emily grew up internalizing criticisms about her impulsivity and lack of follow-through. She held onto that shame as she tried (and often failed) to fit into a world designed for neurotypical brains. I'll Just Be Five More Minutes is a personal essay collection of laugh-out-loud-funny, tear-jerking, and at times cringey true stories of Emily's experiences as a neurodivergent woman. With the newfound knowledge of her ADHD, Emily candidly reexamines her complicated relationships (including one with a celebrity stalker), her money problems, the years she spent unknowingly self-medicating, and her hyperfixations (two words: decorative baskets). A memoir-in-essays both entertaining and enlightening, I'll Just Be Five More Minutes is for people with ADHD, as well as those who know and love them. This is a powerful collection of deeply relatable, wide-ranging stories about a woman's right to control her own body, about overwhelm and oversharing, about drinking too much and sleeping too little, and about being misunderstood by the people closest to you. At its heart, I&’ll Just Be Five More Minutes is about not quite fitting in and not really understanding why—something we&’ve all felt whether we're neurodivergent or not.Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the EBONY Fashion Fair
Par Lisa D. Brathwaite. 2024
A chic biography about Eunice W. Johnson who brought elegant and contemporary fashion to Black America through the annual EBONY…
Fashion Fair!Eunice W. Johnson believed in the power of fashion and beauty to inspire people. After she and her husband, John H. Johnson, founded EBONY magazine, it quickly became the premiere lifestyle publication for mid-century Black readers. Among the many hats she wore, Eunice delighted in writing a fashion column describing the latest styles. In 1958, Eunice launched a project that would change fashion forever--the EBONY Fashion Fair. In towns and cities across the United States, Black models walked the runway in the freshest trends that season and Black attendees got to see people who looked like them in bright colors and haute couture. To make the Fashion Fair happen every year, Eunice negotiated with snobby fashion houses in Europe and navigated racism back home in the US, to acquire the most show-stopping styles for her show. Decades later, her name remains a watchword for glamour and elegance in the Black community. Winner of Lee & Low's New Voices award, Miles of Style celebrates a visionary who used her influence to showcase the strength and beauty of the Black community.From Guilt to Shame: Auschwitz and After (20/21 #8)
Par Ruth Leys. 2007
Why has shame recently displaced guilt as a dominant emotional reference in the West? After the Holocaust, survivors often reported…
feeling guilty for living when so many others had died, and in the 1960s psychoanalysts and psychiatrists in the United States helped make survivor guilt a defining feature of the "survivor syndrome." Yet the idea of survivor guilt has always caused trouble, largely because it appears to imply that, by unconsciously identifying with the perpetrator, victims psychically collude with power. In From Guilt to Shame, Ruth Leys has written the first genealogical-critical study of the vicissitudes of the concept of survivor guilt and the momentous but largely unrecognized significance of guilt's replacement by shame. Ultimately, Leys challenges the theoretical and empirical validity of the shame theory proposed by figures such as Silvan Tomkins, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Giorgio Agamben, demonstrating that while the notion of survivor guilt has depended on an intentionalist framework, shame theorists share a problematic commitment to interpreting the emotions, including shame, in antiintentionalist and materialist terms.Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany
Par Atina Grossmann. 2007
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, more than a quarter million Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived among…
their defeated persecutors in the chaotic society of Allied-occupied Germany. Jews, Germans, and Allies draws upon the wealth of diary and memoir literature by the people who lived through postwar reconstruction to trace the conflicting ways Jews and Germans defined their own victimization and survival, comprehended the trauma of war and genocide, and struggled to rebuild their lives. In gripping and unforgettable detail, Atina Grossmann describes Berlin in the days following Germany's surrender--the mass rape of German women by the Red Army, the liberated slave laborers and homecoming soldiers, returning political exiles, Jews emerging from hiding, and ethnic German refugees fleeing the East. She chronicles the hunger, disease, and homelessness, the fraternization with Allied occupiers, and the complexities of navigating a world where the commonplace mingled with the horrific. Grossmann untangles the stories of Jewish survivors inside and outside the displaced-persons camps of the American zone as they built families and reconstructed identities while awaiting emigration to Palestine or the United States. She examines how Germans and Jews interacted and competed for Allied favor, benefits, and victim status, and how they sought to restore normality--in work, in their relationships, and in their everyday encounters. Jews, Germans, and Allies shows how Jews were integral participants in postwar Germany and bridges the divide that still exists today between German history and Jewish studies.Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort
Par Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, Otto Kirchheimer. 2013
A groundbreaking book that gathers key wartime intelligence reportsDuring the Second World War, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School—Franz…
Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer—worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This book brings together their most important intelligence reports on Nazi Germany, most of them published here for the first time.These reports provide a fresh perspective on Hitler's regime and the Second World War, and a fascinating window on Frankfurt School critical theory. They develop a detailed analysis of Nazism as a social and economic system and the role of anti-Semitism in Nazism, as well as a coherent plan for the reconstruction of postwar Germany as a democratic political system with a socialist economy. These reports played a significant role in the development of postwar Allied policy, including denazification and the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. They also reveal how wartime intelligence analysis shaped the intellectual agendas of these three important German-Jewish scholars who fled Nazi persecution prior to the war.Secret Reports on Nazi Germany features a foreword by Raymond Geuss as well as a comprehensive general introduction by Raffaele Laudani that puts these writings in historical and intellectual context.Roosevelt's Lost Alliances: How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War
Par Frank Costigliola. 2013
How the Grand Alliance of World War II succeeded—and then collapsed—because of personal politicsIn the spring of 1945, as the…
Allied victory in Europe was approaching, the shape of the postwar world hinged on the personal politics and flawed personalities of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Roosevelt's Lost Alliances captures this moment and shows how FDR crafted a winning coalition by overcoming the different habits, upbringings, sympathies, and past experiences of the three leaders. In particular, Roosevelt trained his famous charm on Stalin, lavishing respect on him, salving his insecurities, and rendering him more amenable to compromise on some matters.Yet, even as he pursued a lasting peace, FDR was alienating his own intimate circle of advisers and becoming dangerously isolated. After his death, postwar cooperation depended on Harry Truman, who, with very different sensibilities, heeded the embittered "Soviet experts" his predecessor had kept distant. A Grand Alliance was painstakingly built and carelessly lost. The Cold War was by no means inevitable.This landmark study brings to light key overlooked documents, such as the Yalta diary of Roosevelt's daughter Anna; the intimate letters of Roosevelt's de facto chief of staff, Missy LeHand; and the wiretap transcripts of estranged adviser Harry Hopkins. With a gripping narrative and subtle analysis, Roosevelt's Lost Alliances lays out a new approach to foreign relations history. Frank Costigliola highlights the interplay between national political interests and more contingent factors, such as the personalities of leaders and the culturally conditioned emotions forming their perceptions and driving their actions. Foreign relations flowed from personal politics—a lesson pertinent to historians, diplomats, and citizens alike.Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier's Letters from the Eastern Front
Par Konrad H. Jarausch. 2011
An ordinary German soldier’s letters home from Poland and Russia during World War IIReluctant Accomplice is a volume of the…
wartime letters of Dr. Konrad Jarausch, a German high-school teacher of religion and history who served in a reserve battalion of Hitler's army in Poland and Russia, where he died of typhoid in 1942. He wrote most of these letters to his wife, Elisabeth. His son, acclaimed German historian Konrad H. Jarausch, brings them together here to tell the gripping story of a patriotic soldier of the Third Reich who, through witnessing its atrocities in the East, begins to doubt the war's moral legitimacy. These letters grow increasingly critical, and their vivid descriptions of the mass deaths of Russian POWs are chilling. They reveal the inner conflicts of ordinary Germans who became reluctant accomplices in Hitler's merciless war of annihilation, yet sometimes managed to discover a shared humanity with its suffering victims, a bond that could transcend race, nationalism, and the enmity of war.Reluctant Accomplice is also the powerful story of the son, who for decades refused to come to grips with these letters because he abhorred his father's nationalist politics. Only now, late in his life, is he able to cope with their contents—and he is by no means alone. This book provides rare insight into the so-called children of the war, an entire generation of postwar Germans who grew up resenting their past, but who today must finally face the painful legacy of their parents' complicity in National Socialism.The Sun Over The Mountains: A Story of Hope, Healing and Restoration
Par Suzie Fletcher. 2023
A memoir of hope, healing and restoration, from star of TV's The Repair Shop, Suzie Fletcher.Suzie Fletcher is the warm…
and friendly face on TV's The Repair Shop that viewers look forward to watching every week as the resident leather expert - a craft she has honed over four decades and was born out of her love of horses. But while she tends to be the one repairing and offering a gentle kindness to others, Suzie has also been in a process of change, reflection, and healing.In her first book Suzie looks back over her life - which moves from England to Colorado and back again - and the places, people and experiences that have shaped the person she is today. We'll hear for the first time, how Suzie has overcome some of life's most difficult challenges, from complicated relationships to grief.A self-confessed free spirit with a deep connection to nature, Suzie's exceptional warmth and zest for life shine through on every page, making The Sun Over the Mountains a truly inspiring read that will resonate with anyone who has faced uncertainty but has the courage and power within them to overcome it.The Hand of Compassion: Portraits of Moral Choice during the Holocaust
Par Kristen Renwick Monroe. 2004
Through moving interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on a…
question at the heart of ethics: Why do people risk their lives for strangers and what drives such moral choice? Monroe's analysis points not to traditional explanations--such as religion or reason--but to identity. The rescuers' perceptions of themselves in relation to others made their extraordinary acts spontaneous and left the rescuers no choice but to act. To turn away Jews was, for them, literally unimaginable. In the words of one German Czech rescuer, "The hand of compassion was faster than the calculus of reason." At the heart of this unusual book are interviews with the rescuers, complex human beings from all parts of the Third Reich and all walks of life: Margot, a wealthy German who saved Jews while in exile in Holland; Otto, a German living in Prague who saved more than 100 Jews and provides surprising information about the plot to kill Hitler; John, a Dutchman on the Gestapo's "Most Wanted List"; Irene, a Polish student who hid eighteen Jews in the home of the German major for whom she was keeping house; and Knud, a Danish wartime policeman who took part in the extraordinary rescue of 85 percent of his country's Jews. We listen as the rescuers themselves tell the stories of their lives and their efforts to save Jews. Monroe's analysis of these stories draws on philosophy, ethics, and political psychology to suggest why and how identity constrains our choices, both cognitively and ethically. Her work offers a powerful counterpoint to conventional arguments about rational choice and a valuable addition to the literature on ethics and moral psychology. It is a dramatic illumination of the power of identity to shape our most basic political acts, including our treatment of others. But always Monroe returns us to the rescuers, to their strong voices, reminding us that the Holocaust need not have happened and revealing the minds of the ethically exemplary as they negotiated the moral quicksand that was the Holocaust.The Sun Over The Mountains: A Story of Hope, Healing and Restoration
Par Suzie Fletcher. 2023
A memoir of hope, healing and restoration, from star of TV's The Repair Shop, Suzie Fletcher.Suzie Fletcher is the warm…
and friendly face on TV's The Repair Shop that viewers look forward to watching every week as the resident leather expert - a craft she has honed over four decades and was born out of her love of horses. But while she tends to be the one repairing and offering a gentle kindness to others, Suzie has also been in a process of change, reflection, and healing.In her first book Suzie looks back over her life - which moves from England to Colorado and back again - and the places, people and experiences that have shaped the person she is today. We'll hear for the first time, how Suzie has overcome some of life's most difficult challenges, from complicated relationships to grief.A self-confessed free spirit with a deep connection to nature, Suzie's exceptional warmth and zest for life shine through on every page, making The Sun Over the Mountains a truly inspiring read that will resonate with anyone who has faced uncertainty but has the courage and power within them to overcome it.Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story
Par Ricardo S. Sanchez, Donald T. Phillips. 2008
Amidst all of the criticisms of America's war in Iraq, one essential voice has remained silent . . . until…
now. In his groundbreaking new memoir, Wiser in Battle, LTG (Ret) Ricardo S. Sanchez, former Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq, reports back from the front lines of the global War on Terror to provide a comprehensive and chilling exploration of America's historic military and foreign policy blunder.Wild Women and Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, and Prolific Pens
Par Brenda Knight. 2006
A provocative and inspiring exploration of women writers from the first writers in history to today’s greats—with a new introduction…
by Ntozake Shange.Wild Women and Books celebrates some of the most revered and radical women writers of history. Beginning with the first recorded writer of either gender, Enheduanna of Sumeria, and ending with acclaimed contemporary writers like Toni Morrison and J.K. Rowling, this is a must-read for those who must read.Brenda Knight brings more than a hundred female authors to life for today's readers—from Aphra Ben to Zora Neal Hurston and from Ann Rice to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Knight recounts their tumultuous paths to literary acclaim in chapters such as Literary First Ladies; Ink in Their Veins; Banned, Blacklisted, and Arrested; and Women Whose Books Are Loved Too Much.From religious transcribers and political dissidents to erotic playwrights and romantic poets, no subject or literary form is left untouched. In honor of those women whose pens pioneered, persevered, and proved that the female voice is brilliant, Knight invites you to explore the literary legacy of women.Twin to Twin: From High-Risk Pregnancy to Happy Family
Par Crystal Duffy. 2019
A twenty-nine-year-old mother’s harrowing and inspiring adventure through a high-risk twin pregnancy.One minute Crystal was sitting at a candlelight dinner…
in Paris with her husband. The next she was back home in Houston, sitting in her OB-GYN’s office concerned that she was having a second miscarriage. But she was actually pregnant with twins! Since Crystal and her husband Ed already had a two-year-old daughter, Abigail, she couldn’t imagine why mothering twins would be all that different. That is until she learns her twins have a life-threatening condition called Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, meaning Baby B is transfusing blood (disproportionately) to Baby A.Crystal is declared too high risk, so her OB sends her to the 5th floor of the Houston Medical Center for the duration of her pregnancy. Sitting alone in her hospital bed, Crystal wonders how she’ll pass the next few weeks, away from her husband and daughter. Soon she embarks on an emotional rollercoaster—from late night emergency ultrasounds to hospital baby blessings, sprinkled with comic relief from nurses and hospital staff.Twin to Twin is a raw and inspirational story filled with tenderness, vulnerability, and humor. It chronicles the wildest, most terrifying and challenging year of Crystal’s life, which is also the most beautiful and eye-opening. Her hope is that it will bring strength to other women dealing with their own personal trials and tragedies, so they can also triumph.Praise for Twin to Twin“An “orphan” disease, expectant mothers with Twin to Twin (and their support systems) should adopt . . . Twin to Twin. An intimate account, told with flagging and unflagging optimism, Duffy’s story ensures that others need not ride alone through this rollercoaster experience.” —Suzy Becker, author of One Good Egg“Duffy’s wit and self-deprecating humor helped her survive the realities and (sometimes devastating) physical and emotional truths of her high-stakes twin pregnancy. Twin to Twin is engaging, compelling, and yes, entertaining read.” —Susan Krawitz, author of Viva RoseNovember 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II
Par Peter Englund. 2023
The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • An intimate history of the most important month of World War II,…
completely based on the diaries, letters and memoirs of the people who lived through itAt the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could still win the Second World War; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between were el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. It may have been the most important thirty days of the twentieth century. In this hugely innovative and riveting history, Peter Englund has reduced an epoch-making event to its basic component: the individual experience.Englund&’s narrative is based solely on what he learned from the writings of soldiers and ordinary citizens alike. They comprise a remarkable, deeply personal resource. In thirty memorable days, among those we meet are: a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an American pilot on Guadalcanal; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a shipwrecked Chinese sailor; a prisoner in Treblinka; a Korean &“comfort woman&” in Mandalay; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman and Vera Brittain—forty characters in all. In addition, we experience the construction and launching of SS James Oglethorpe, a Liberty ship built in Savannah; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor in Chicago; and the making of Casablanca. Not since the publication of the author&’s last book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, which similarly looked at the First World War, have we had such a mesmerizing work of history.Serenade: A Balanchine Story
Par Toni Bentley. 2022
Toni Bentley, a dancer for George Balanchine, the greatest ballet maker of the 20th century, tells the story of Serenade,…
his iconic masterpiece, and what it was like to dance—and live—in his world at New York City Ballet during its legendary era. "Reading Bentley's Serenade made me feel as alive as I felt on the stage the moment that I fell in love with ballet…. [A] delicate balance of personal memoir, rarefied elegance, history of the arts and pure human interest.&”—Misty Copeland, New York Times Book Review "[A] unique document about one of the greatest ballets ever created…. A beautiful read&”—Mikhail BaryshnikovAt age seventeen, Toni Bentley was chosen by Balanchine, then in his final years, to join the New York City Ballet. From both backstage and onstage, she carries us through the serendipitous history and physical intricacies and demands of Serenade: its dazzling opening, with seventeen women in a double-diamond pattern; its radical, even jazzy, use of the highly refined language that is ballet; its place in the choreographer&’s own dramatic story of his immigration to the United States from Soviet Russia; its mystical—and literal—embodiment of the tradition of classical ballet in just thirty-three minutes. Bentley takes us inside the rarefied, intense, and thrilling world Balanchine created through his lifelong devotion to celebrating and expanding female beauty and strength—a world that, inevitably, passed upon his death. An intimate elegy to grace and loss and to the imprint of a towering artist and his transcendent creation on Bentley&’s own life, Serenade: A Balanchine Story is a rich narrative by a dynamic artist about the nature of art itself at its most ephemeral and glorious.