Synopses & Reviews
Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins's family members lend an intimate dimension to this vast narrative of those millions who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea. The immense dislocations of World War II have no precedent in human history: 28 million Russians died, 10 million Germans, 6 million Jews, and several hundred thousand French, English, Americans, and Canadians. The Baltic republics, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, briefly independent between the wars, were virtually devastated, and many of their inhabitants scattered to the ends of the earth. As the huge climax of Modris Eksteins's two-pronged narrative approaches, the reader learns yet again that in historical catastrophes blame and praise are nearly impossible to assign. Walking Since Daybreak belongs in the great tradition of books that redefine our understanding of history, like J. R. Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages and Jakob Burckhardt's The Renaissance in Italy.
Review
"Although every refugee memoir is intrinsically valuable testimony, their literary and analytical qualities vary greatly with the writer. Ekstein's account of his family's exile from his ancestral Latvia rates highly in those respects."
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [224]-247) index.
About the Author
Modris Ekstein is a professor of history at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus.