Synopses & Reviews
From the dean of modem Jewish historians comes a panoramic examination of the experience of Europe's Jews in the aftermath of "the war to end all wars."
Dreamland traces the fissures that appeared all too quickly in those democracies born from the rubble of Europe's autocratic empires. Focusing his richly detailed narrative on European Jews -- whose minority status made them particularly sensitive to changes in the social order -- Howard Sachar spotlights charismatic Jewish leaders, from Hungarian Communist Bela Kun to Germany's Rosa Luxemburg, France's Socialist Prime Minister Leon Blum and Austria's Sigmund Freud. Sachar demonstrates how Jews all across Europe -- whether part of an assimilated and influential intelligentsia or members of marginalized Jewish communities -- effected and withstood the political and economic pressures of the 1920s and '30s, and how their experiences foretold significant democratic failures long before the Nazi rise to power.
About the Author
Howard M. Sachar is the author of numerous books, including A History of Israel, A History of the Jews in America, Farewell España, and Israel and Europe. He is also the editor of the 39-volume The Rise of Israel: A Documentary History. He serves as Professor of Modern History at George Washington University, is a consultant and lecturer on Middle Eastern affairs for numerous governmental bodies, and lectures widely in the United States and abroad. He lives in Kensington, Maryland.