5 comments about Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Penguin Classics).

1. It's a classic of course, but not very readable as pure entertainment.Probably the parts about his opium addiction, which are pages 44-88, are of most interest today. To be frank, most of the rest is hard going unless you're adept at reading early nineteenth century English, perhaps an English or history major. De Quincey was a rambling and digressive writer, even by nineteenth century standards. There is some fascination in the interlocking lives of this circle of writers of the romantic movement (the "Lake Poets";Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, and their contemporaries Keats, Shelley and Byron) especially if you've read Richard Holmes's wonderful biographies.
   You can get the "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" alone cheaper in the Dover edition. This Penguin Classics edition contained other writings which are of limited appeal, but the notes and the introduction and appendix by Barry Mulligan make it more understandable and provide useful historical background about opium use.
   Opium was freely available over the counter in England until 1858, so this could be read as a warning about what might happen with legalization. It has always been a puzzle that De Quincey and Coleridge described vivid dreams and hallucinations as part of their experience, whereas opioids used by addicts today are not usually hallucinogenic. De Quincey was aware that his experiences were atypical and offered his own explanations ("one whose talk is of oxen will dream of oxen").
   I was intrigued his account of the relief of his withdrawal symptoms by the use of valerian (prescribed by Bell of Bell's palsy).



2. This is English that one can luxuriate in and enjoy for it's precision and beauty. There are few if any English compositions that better convey subjective feeling than this book. You feel as though you are inside the author's mind as he writes so exactly and sympathetically.
   
   As a recounting of a man's struggle with addiction it is a compelling story.



3. I stumbled on this book while I was a long-haired undergrad in college many years ago, and I selected it (probably because of the intriguing, rebellious-sounding title) to write a term paper on for a class I was taking in biography. I have nursed a special attraction for this work of literary art ever since those days, and currently own it in several different editions, including this one from Penguin Classics.
   
   While his writing is probably tough-going for the typical modern day reader, De Quincey was truly a master stylist of English prose (one of the greatest who ever lived) and the writing here is lushly impeccable -- beautiful and poetic. Contemporary readers, do not be afraid of this kind of book! Sure, it might be difficult to read (it's certainly not "dummied down" like so much modern day stuff), but if you don't try, I think you'll be missing out on a great adventure. After all, consider, Shakespeare and the Bible are difficult to read too!
   
   In any event, these writings of De Quincey's, quite autobiographical, tell of the marvelous stimulus to creativity and pleasure that opium can provide (at least, in the initial phases) to those who become emeshed in her dark empire, as well as the chilling aftermath -- the pathetic fear and trembling that inevitably follow from addiction. At his peak usage, I have read that De Quincey was doing around 8,000 drops a day (approximately 80 teaspoons). As one of the other reviewers here correctly noted, tincture of opium (I think that it actually came as a liquid blend of opium, drinking alcohol, and cinnamon) was sold over-the-counter as medicine in neighborhood apothecary shops (drug stores and pharmacies) in those days.
   
   The "Confessions" date from 1822, while a complementary sequel, "Suspiria de Profundis", dates from 1845. De Qunicey, who relapsed three times after trying to "clean himself up" and "go straight", passed away in December 1859, right about the time that Baudelaire (who also died an opium addict -- in 1867) was completing his own book (it was in direct response to De Quincey's) about the dreamy debacheries of hashish and opium, entitled "Artificial Paradises".



4. I first heard of this book because the great Italian horror film maker, Dario Argento, was inspired by the writings of De Quincey, specifically this book. This book contains De Quincey's most famous work, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and 2 unofficial sequels, Suspiria de Profundis (Suspiria is the title of Dario's most famous film), and The English Mail Coach. Suspiria has an essay entitled Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow in which De Quincey talks about the 3 ladies (some have said the three mothers as well). They are the lady of tears, sighs, and darkness. Dario's 2 films, Suspiria and Inferno, are about these mothers/ladies. He just completed the third film. This is the reason I purchased the book.
   
   De Quincey's prose is definitely difficult to read (it's not an easy, mindless self help book), but it is definitely worth reading, and it's absolutely fascinating as Thomas accounts for his opium habit, and the ways it affected him and his work. Opium was staggeringly popular during De Quincey's time, and it wasn't very difficult to get. De Quincey published the confessions twice. The original, shorter version is the one you have here, and it's the only one still available. The longer version (which I have read to some degree) is good too, but it feels padded and is rather uneven. Most scholars have agreed that the shorter version is better. I wish they had included the longer version so we could compare ourselves, but I'm happy this edition is out.



5. After circling this book for years, I finally read it this week. And it knocked my socks off. DeQuincey writes like an angel. Even in the less structured passages (his descriptions of his opium dreams are somewhat disjointed) his writing is so astonishingly brilliant that the reader is swept along.
   
   In her introduction to the Penguin Classic edition, Alethea Hayter describes DeQuincey's prose as "highly charged, close-textured, every word and syllable choice enriched with music and imagery", "prose (that) works like a spell, powerfully moving even apart from the meaning of the words."
   
   I can't improve on that characterization.

5 comments about Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds.

1. TRICKSTER TRAVELS: A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MUSLIM BETWEEN WORLDS could also have been featured in our 'travel' section for its fascinating travelogue entries; but is reviewed here for its value to any studying 1500s history. Al-Wazzan trveled widely as an ambassador and merchant throughout Africa in the early 1500s, was captured by Spanish pirates and presented to Pope Leo X, where he converted to Christianity while explaining Islam to his puzzled audience. The charged politics and turmoil of his life and times brings history to life, with history professor Davis using manuscripts of the times - including some previously unknown - to explore fully al-Wazzan's image and importance. Unfamiliar with his name? Try 'Leo Africanus', author of the first geography of Africa.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. One star, there being no zero. While the wish to explore the subject is understandable, the outcome is confusing and boring. Read it if you want to find out how an interesting subject can become dull.



3. To read a really excellent book about Leo The African, I recommend the far superior "Leo Africanus" by Amin Maalouf, a winner of several literary awards and an amazing book.



4. This book isn't really history or biography for that matter. Its an in-between kind of book that wants to imagine a past into existance based on speculation rather than evidence or fact. The factual details of the life of Leo Africanus would make a chapter. And even the facts we do have about his life are colored by a particular point of view which has to be questioned.
   
   Natalie Davis does her best based on all sorts of other material to imagine a public and private life for the man. As speculative fiction, it works. The only problem being that ignorant readers will begin to take this book as if were fact rather than a created story. The fault I find is that the book doesn't draw enough distinction about what is being imagined versus the actual facts of his life.
   
   The book is very good, but its not history or biography and should not be read as history or biography.



5. This book starts out with the mention of "King Manuel I of Portugal presenting Pope Leo X with a white elephant from India". I know that Professor Zemon Davis (ZD) didn't intent this as irony but it is. Most of this book, a white elephant in itself, is based on heresy, guesses and flights of fantasy. The only parts of the book that she is truly able to document are the nine years that 'Leo Africanus: Giovanni Leone" spent in Europe, with seven of those being in Italy.
   
   While in Italy he is purported to have written "Description of Africa" which was considered one of the few books written in Europe in the sixteenth century to document the Geography and sociology of North Africa. The book was written in Italian by the slave "Yuhanna al-Asad" who was born in Granada (Spain), brought up in Fez (Morocco) and captured by Christian pirates and given as a gift to Pope Leo X. This is the extent of what is known about our hero.
   
   ZD spends over two hundred and seventy pages telling us this story that could be contained in a paragraph. The rest of the book are her musing on the Roman Catholic Church and the machinasation of the church curia over how to counter Martin Luther and to recapture North Africa and the Holy Land from the Moslems.
   
   If your interested in this book read the Intro and the Chapters on Italy and the Comparison between Islam and Christianity, and skip the rest. As an example of the 'wistfulness' of this book, ZD spends sixteen pages on his 'return' after telling us that nothing is known about what happened to him after he left Italy.

3 comments about The Most Beautiful Villages of Burgundy (Most Beautiful Villages).

1. France is a magical place and Burgundy is one of its most magical regions. The premier wine-growing region of France, Burgundy is also the center of fine cuisine, Romanesque architecture and lazy canals bordered by meadows of wildflowers. This book, with its more than 260 color illustrations, shows Burgundy at its finest. A region dominated by water, the book begins in the north and travels through all of Burgundy's four departments. From the Yonne, a land of peaceful river valleys and almost 1000 canals, we travel southward with the author to visit little Romanesque churches and learn how the Benedictine and Cistercian monks spread the Romanesque style. We finally arrive in the southernmost department of Soane-et-Loire and the city of Macon, the border to the Midi and the South, where we sample some of the finest wines in the world, such as Montrachet and Pommard. Burgundy is one of the most beautiful places on earth--unspoiled, unhurried and faithful to its past. Whether you plan to actually visit the area or are just dreaming of a visit, this is the perfect book to accompny you and your dreams and perhaps even make make them come true.



2. My sister and I recently toured Burgundy and even though we were born and bred in France, we saw the region anew. The photos in this book are lovely and for once, do a place justice. If you plan to travel to Burgundy, and may I suggest that you do, you certainly can't go wrong with this book as a traveling companion and tour guide.



3. I have to agree with the two previous reviewers, Burgundy is a very special part of France, and a very special part of the world. It is worth seeing just for the vineyards alone, but there is so much more to Burgundy than just wine. If you're lucky enough to go there, take this book along. It will be an invaluable guide to the restaurants and hotels in the area as well as to the festivals, concerts, etc. And if you must stay at home, then this book is the next best thing to actually being there. The photos are gorgeous and the text informative. Five stars is not enough!

3 comments about Moleskine City Notebook Barcelona (Moleskine City Notebook).

1. I have traveled quite a bit and always take blank books (and a glue stick! for tickets/photos, etc.) This book is GREAT...however, it is a tad bit small. The maps are extremely useful and the little clear post-it sheets are a great idea. It is very well made and lasts.



2. This is a very unusual product and I would strongly encourage anyone considering getting one to be completely aware of what it is before they purchase it. First, if you are looking for a single travel guide to prepare you for your trip to New York (or anywhere else there is a guide for), this is very close to worthless, if not entirely worthless. I would call one's attention to the title of the product. It is a "Notebook." That means that most of the pages are blank. This literally is a book for taking notes in.
   
   So what do you get when you buy this? Every book in the series follows the same format. First there is a personal information page with address, phone, allergies, family doctor, passport number, then map information with public transportation maps. Then follows information on the various forms of transportation with phone numbers and websites, including cabs, buses, other forms of public transportation, and airports. There are some blank itinerary pages, measurement and speed conversion charts, size conversion charts (for shoppers), then a long series of neighborhood maps, including an index. And that's it. The final two-thirds of the notebook are blank. The next 20 or so pages are completely blank and unlined for whatever use you want to put them to. Next come several pages intended for writing down names of restaurants, bars, museums, historical sites, hotels, or whatever. The book also comes with unlabeled tabs with stickers to use as desired (for theaters, concert halls, or whatever you desire) as well as tracing paper for, as the label says, "Itineraries or Whatever." Finally, there is the usual pocket at the back that is found in all Moleskine products.
   
   For some people this is going to be an absolutely useless product. But for many this will be remarkably useful. In fact, I can envision two uses for this notebook. First, those who are planning a trip to one of the places for which Moleskine has produced a book. Let's say one has consulted the Blue guide, the Eyewitness Guide (by DK), a Rough Guide, the Michelin guide, and the Let's Go guide. Maybe you've bought all of these, making for five guides. No way do you want to drag all of these on your trip or more than one on your flight. So what might you do? You might take the Moleskin Notebook, record into it all the places you want to see, restaurants you want to dine at, museums you want to stroll through, and anything else you want to do while in your destination of choice, and record it there. So the Moleskine City Notebook can serve as a distillation of all the various travel guides, web sites, and other resources you have consulted. And instead of hauling about a large Fodor's guide, you can carry about this small Notebook that can easily fit into a backpack, purse, should bag, or even pocket.
   
   The only downside is that the Moleskine City Notebook is only as good as you make it. If you do a good job of planning your trip, it will be filled to the brim with useful and helpful information. If not, it will be as unhelpful as you have made it.
   
   There is a second use to which the City Notebook can be put to use, though it is not one for which it was primarily designed. You could use it for the city in which you live, should you live in one of the cities for which one is made. I live, for instance, in Chicago. I have bought one of these so that I can over time use it to record every bit of helpful information that I might find useful or helpful. I can record what hours the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore (the real one, not the trade version on 57th Street) is open. The hours for the Chicago Public Library and the Newberry Library. Phone numbers of restaurants and addresses of bars. And so on and so forth. Granted, these books will only benefit those who live in one of those cities, but for the U.S. New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are pretty populated areas.
   
   So this is a very well conceived product though it absolutely has to be stressed that it is a specialized one. Please note: THIS ISN'T FOR EVERYONE. If you don't want to use the Notebook to plan your trip it is going to be very close to worthless. I'll emphasize again: this is only as good a product as you make it. But if you use it to help you plan your trip, it could be the single item you would most loathe to be without after your notebook.



3. When I first received my copy of the Barcelona Moleskin City Book, I emailed the seller and asked if perhaps I had received a bad press run, because the typography on the first few pages was really faint and difficult to read. The response was that apparently the designer had chosen a lighter gray color ink for pages that contained information such as Measurements and Conversions, Metro Station Index, Transport, etc. As a result, you have to tilt the book to catch the light properly in order to read the entries, not exactly something you really want to be struggling with while standing on a street corner looking lost.
   Fortunately the text on the maps is easier to read-- but many of smaller placas and carrers in the Old City are not identified so you will be wandering around lost, even with your these maps in hand.
   Finally, the book is 3 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches, meaning that while it fits into your pocket, you might want to bring a magnifying glass along if you expect to read any of the 14 sectional maps for the city. I would have preferred something a bit larger-- perhaps the next size up moleskin book. I'll probably carry it with me, now that I own it, but I will also buy a real map.
   BTW, the exterior stripe-- which is green for this book-- is nothing more than a removable paper wrapper.

5 comments about A Tuscan Childhood.

1. Prior to her death, Kinta Beevor wrote only one book -- A TUSCAN CHILDHOOD -- which would have been better titled "My Life in Tuscany" as it really is the tale of her connection to Tuscany over period of 40 years that included her childhood. Beevor, whose maiden name was Waterfield, was the daughter Aubrey the artist and his wife Lina Gordon, both British ex-pats who lived and worked in Italy during the first half of the 20th Century. The family owned the fabulous 15th Century Fortezza della Brunella which the family called "the castle" and Lina inherited Poggio Gherardo which was almost as old. Both properties came with extensive farm lands. As a result the Waterfields lived lives of comfort -- socializing with the rich and famous (D.H.Lawrence for one) and feeding them to-die-for meals and sending their much neglected children back to England for schooling.

   Though I became weary of name-dropping, I found Beevor's book an enjoyable read. Her mention of various rich and famous folks is as natural as can be--just tiresome in the same way a story told over and over by an older person can be. She says her son encouraged her to write down what she could remember, and I suspect he did so after he heard her stories several times. Fortunately, someone had the good sense to publish the book for a wider audience.

   Ms. Beevor obviously loved Tuscany--her father's castle where the family restored and maintained a beautiful garden on the roof, her mother's house which Beevor's mother gained the use of on the death of her Aunt Janet, and the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Beevor's description of the sea as the train approached Aulla for her summer vacations from school in England is as well written as anything Lawrence ever wrote, and no doubt she was quite knowledgeable of his works given he was a family friend.

   After WWII, faced with death duties on the Poggio Gherardo following the death of Beevor's brother John, and huge expenses owing to the damage inflicted on both properties during the war (the retreating Nazis and the encroaching Allies made a mess, the latter found an autographed photo of Mussolini in the castle and wrecked havoc) the family was forced to sell up and return to England.

   Beevor's book contains passages that reminded me of bitter-sweet scenes in "The English Patient", the "Jewel in the Crown", "Tea With Mussolini", "Out of Africa", "Room With a View" and other works written by European ex-pats returned to their home of origin. Ms Beevor was undoubtedly well read and understood the withdrawal of the British Empire following WWII, and in her closing chapters she shares her thoughts about the effect of that withdrawal on Italy. Italy of course was not a colony, but the British had truly made themselves at home in Italy before the war (and may have done so once again).




2. The only book Kinta Beevor ever wrote, it was perhaps the only book she could have written. Her obvious love for her magical childhood in Tuscany (esp the years before she was shipped off to England for school) shines forth from every paragraph as she recounts her life as one of the benignly-neglected children of a pair of English aristocrats who owned a 15th century castle, the Fortezza della Brunella, as well as a villa above Florence.
   Centered around two very different periods of the author's life, the rural castle and the more urban villa, A Tuscan Childhood is full of famous people (her parents were part of the literati), beloved peasant farm workers, nursemaids, and Aunt Janet, upon whose death the villa falls into the hands of Ms. Beevor's mother.
   Toward the end, in diatribes against Mussolini, the Allies, death taxes, and everything and everyone else, an old lady's peevishness with changing times mars what is otherwise a lovely and evocative piece of writing.



3. Kinta Beevor, author of only this book, comes from a family of writers, including her son, the reknown author, Antony Beevor. It must be a genetic feature that families produce wonderful writers.
   She draws you into her world, like a welcoming friend. You will experience historic events and the world as it was in Tuscany in the 19th century and the early 20th century. You will get to know many of the distinguished and famous persons who visited the Waterfields and best of all, you will become acquainted with "Aunt Janet", the famous English writer, Janet Ross.
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Tuscany and in warm and inviting family experiences and how they are influenced by world events.



4. This book really takes you to Tuscany, as it was for British ex-patriates between World War I and World War II. Everything is here - the people, the landscape, the food. Highly recommended!



5. What amazed me about this book is that in spite of the author's English silver-spoon upbringing (sometimes it's hard to figure out which castle she's in at the moment) she gives the reader such an intimate portrait of the country, the scenery, the customs and the people of Tuscany. When you read of all the artistic and literary nobility that her parents had entertained, it's hard to fathom how she found the opportunities (and she did find them...) to relate so well to the local people. I have read many books written by authors who lived with and among the rural peasantry that don't give any better or more appealing feel for the country. I would hate to have missed this book!

2 comments about Laminated Vienna Pocket Map & Guide by Pocket Pilot.

1. Truly pocket-sized and extremely helpful. Easy to read, so small yet has lots of information. A must-have, especially for first time visitors.



2. We just used a number of Pocket Pilot Maps on a recent trip; Munich, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. We carried them everywhere and they were very helpful. They aren't enough to use on their own when planning a trip, and their list of "must sees" didn't agree entirely with ours or other travel books, but I still highly recommend having this map with you for every city you go. We wish we had had them for every city we went, but they don't all exist. The easy-to-fold-in-different-directions flexibility was great, as was the fact that it was laminated (we did have some rain and snow, and would even look at the maps over meals or drinks). Overall, I say these are a must buy, but don't rely on them on their own. We enjoyed using the Rick Steve's books to help with our planning, and then found the Knopf MapGuides a perfect match with our pocket-pilots. Both are fairly small and both are helpful in different ways. Don't forget to check out your local libraries for the Rick Steve's and Knopf guides, but you'll definitely want to buy your own personal copy of the pocket-pilots. Happy travels!

1 comments about Fodor's France 2008 (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. I have the Fodors book on France from 1993 (interestingly enough the same chateau on the cover! different angle though..) and the difference in 15 years is nothing short of amazing! The reviews, itineraries,maps, the explanations, the sidebars on wine-tasting, art, etc... in short, everything - has been embellished, polished, perked up, smoothed, increased dramatically and all to the good. Fodors used to be VERY good at reviews of hotels and dining but VERY short on historical interest and background. Well...not any more. This really is the only volume you will need when you go to France, and is a lot of fun to just go through if you are interested at all in the history, art, society and culture of the country - even if you are not planning a trip to France soon. Fodors has done everything right!

5 comments about Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine.

1. Professor Omer Bartov's holocaustic travelogue in the Western Ukraine has been published just when the US Congress is about to pretend that the Armenian Genocide of 1915 did not happen, lest Turkish nationalism be offended. Bartov has visited the Western Ukraine, once called Eastern Galicia, where all memory of centuries of Polish rule and Polish and Jewish habitation has been virtually ignored and erased.
   
   Of all the countries occupied in WWII by the Nazis Ukraine was the most enthusiastic about being liberated from the Soviets and the most eager to help kill as many Jews as possible. Clearly this was the result of the weakness of Ukrainian nationalism and its perceived need to cleanse its territory ethnically of Poles and Jews whose long history there compromised the integrity of the newly nationalistic Ukrainians. Something similar could be found in Lithuania and Latvia, but what this reminds me of the most is the Turkish refusal to recognize that over one million Armenians were killed through the policies of the Ottoman government during WWI. If Bartov visited Eastern Turkey, the homeland of the Armenians, he would find denial by both Turkish officials and the indigenous Kurd population, both of which cannot accept that Armenians ever existed there.
   
   Nationalism is a deadly poison and the Jews and Armenians have been its most notable victims. Pity, then, that Zionists also have to pretend there was no Armenian genocide lest its Turkish friends take umbrage, and that Armenians have persisted in their pro-Arab stance in the Middle East long after it had any real utility for them.
   
   The ruling castes of the world one hundred years ago feared class warfare above all. Little did they know that nationalistic not socialist hatreds would be the most devastating for peace and security.
   
   Bartov is a well respected scholar of the Holocaust and his visit to the new Ukrainian nation is very illuminating. Let us hope the Ukrainians some day get to feel secure enough to face the truth about what they have done in the name of their nation.



2. I was prepared to like this book better, as I have a strong interest in Jewish life in Eastern Galicia (present-day West Ukraine) and have traveled in this area. I agree with the author's main theory that for present-day Ukrainians to truly memorialize Jews who are no longer among them, they would need to deal with the role some Ukrainians had in the massacre of the Jews. So instead they memorialize Ukrainian nationalists. I found the book somewhat repetitive, with the situation being roughly the same in each place the author visited. It also wasn't clear why the author picked these particular places to visit and not others. I hope this upcoming book on one particular village will be better, as it will allow him to go more in-depth.



3. For a long time Galicia was a 'hotbed' of nationalism and this book shows the ramifications of that. I am from a city that is, according to the author, part of Galicia but it is not one of the cities he traveled to and wrote about in the book, sadly. I would have been quite interested to read his take on what happened to this city after the war, etc.
   
   Overall, as another reviewer has said, the book is at times repetitive. What readers will notice is that for the most part in practically every city Ukrainians partook in the pogroms or murders of Jews from the beginning days of the German occupation. Few, on the other hand, tried to save Jews. One can argue that they had no time to save Jews as they were looking out for themselves, yet that does not go a long way in explaining why so many were implicit in their deaths.
   
   Today all the memorials erected to commemorate the suffering and death of the Jewish people are overlooked or forgotten about, in their place have sprung up dozens of monuments to Ukrainian nationalists, many of them guilty of mass murder and anti-Semitism. It should be mentioned that during the Soviet era the Holocaust was not mentioned, the Soviets did not want to single out any one group of people (commendable in some respects but not realistic or to a degree honest) and most of the memorials do not mention which group died but rather you will find them saying that so many 'Soviet citizens' died/were murdered, etc. It seems that it will be a long while, if ever, before Ukraine and Ukrainians can come to grips with their past in regards to WWII and the Holocaust.
   
   Overall the book is an interesting read because one can get a glimpse of the exact same thing happening in every village/town/city, one after another. It is not a natural phenomenon, I'm sure to a degree it is part of a state sponsored program to erase the Ukrainian past during WWII in regards to the Holocaust and replace it with heroic nationalistic characters like Stepan Bandera.



4. This book explained the extremely said situation of the erasure of Jewish heritage in the Ukraine. It is quite thorough on the towns that were visited. It is a must read for anyone with roots in the former Galicia.



5. As the world has come to learn about each and every depopulated Palestinian village and record their names and the Nakhba (All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, or Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948 (Honorable Mention for the Albert Hourani Award, Middle Eastern Studies Association)) it is interesting to learn how Europeans, the same Europeans who value every inch of Palestinian history, obliterated, destroyed and crushed the Jewish history of eastern Europe, in this case Galicia. The book tells how the Jews were first destroyed and then their history, through neglect, communistic anti-semitism and finally Ukrainian nationalism, was forgotten and pushed aside. This is one of the few testaments to a vanished people. While German Jewry has been done justice in numerous important publications (The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933), there has been comparatively little interest in the Yiddish civilization and the Jews of the Pale of Settlement or Galicia. Outside of the Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry and Synagogues Without Jews this history has simply vanished. This is such an important book not only for Jews whose ancestors came from these places but also for all the Jews whose roots are in Eastern Europe and Russia, and for Europeans who might one day want to recall this vanished people who once lived among them.
   
   A very sad book that describes a hidden history that, while most recall the holocaust, few can see the physical traces of the once vibrant, warm, loving communities that were crushed under the Nazi boot and then erased to make way for modernity.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman

No comments about Little Black Book of Rome: The Timeless Guide to the Eternal City (Little Black Book Series).

No comments about I Never Knew That About Scotland.