Book Description
Italian influence can be seen everywhere in America—in its buildings and its books, in its culture and its cuisine. Passage to Liberty tells the story of how Italians became Americans and fulfilled their dreams of rebuilding the image of Rome in their new country. Readers will discover:
- Removable reproductions of memorabilia and documents
- Engaging illustrations
- Informative text
- And more!
Both a work of history and a moving narrative, Passage to Liberty brings to life the experiences of a people whose talents, contributions, and self-sacrifice helped them to make this country their own.
Customer Reviews:
such a beautiful book.......2006-03-10
Not long after my grandmother's death, I went to a Borders store and was looking through the books on sale. I saw this lovely book and picked it up to leaf through it. The first page I opened the book to was the one with the little handwritten recipe. The recipe was unfamiliar to me, but the small neat handwriting was amazingly like my grandmother's, and the slip of paper it was written on was exactly like a page from one of the little notebooks she used to write in. I didn't have to look at another thing in the book to know I had to buy it. When I got the book home and actually read it, I LOVED IT! The book itself is really good, but all of the little bits that are tucked inside really make it worth the money. It's a lovely book.
Something you'll treasure.......2002-10-31
As you'd expect in a book like this, it tells the tale from Columbus to Madonna, and tells it well, concisely, entertainingly, without being annoyingly fulsome or reverent. What makes this a treaure, though, are all the surprises--you turn a page and find, actually tucked into a corner or attached by glue, replicas of ancient passports, or hand-written recipes, or coupon books from some old immigrant mutual-aid insurance policy. There's even a St. Lucia prayer card from somebody's funeral and the jury's verdict form from a trial of Al Capone. It brings the history to life in a way beyond mere words. If you buy one copy, you'll end up buying more as gifts, without a doubt.It's a beautiful object and a terrific book.
Average customer rating:
- Classic(review by Jakob)
- Classic(review by Jakob)
- Sharing a positive side of the Holocaust with young readers
- Heroic tale
- Each of us can make a difference
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Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
Ken Mochizuki
Manufacturer: Lee & Low Books
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Similar Items:
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Baseball Saved Us
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Sugihara - Conspiracy of Kindness
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The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story Of The Japanese And The Jews During World War II
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Bracelet,The
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The Butterfly
ASIN: 1584301570 |
Customer Reviews:
Classic(review by Jakob).......2006-05-22
When reading this booki was amazed that so few would do so much for so many,Ive never heard of a story like it. What suprised me even more was that the man who saved all those Jews was a Japanese, if i remember correctly where an axis power during WW2 and allied with the Germans. This man must have really followed his heart if he was to defy his own country, and for that i really admire him
Classic(review by Jakob).......2006-05-22
When reading this booki was amazed that so few would do so much for so many,Ive never heard of a story like it. What suprised me even more was that the man who saved all those Jews was a Japanese, if i remember correctly where an axis power during WW2 and allied with the Germans. This man must have really followed his heart if he was to defy his own country, and for that i really admire him
Sharing a positive side of the Holocaust with young readers.......2005-05-06
I used this book as an introduction to the Holocaust for my 7-year-old. Rather than starting him off on the atrocities, I used this well-written and beautiful book to start him off with learning that we Jews were once in grave danger, and there were some people who took care of us when they could, even though it was a difficult choice.
3/4 of the way through reading the book out loud to my son, I started to cry a little. The story is poignant, of course, but more than that, the writing captures the meaning in such a simple and straight-forward way.
I would recommend this book to anybody, Jewish or not Jewish. It is an excellent introduction to the concept that life can be dangerous, along with the idea that good people exist, AND that any one of us can choose to be a person who makes a difference.
The writing makes it clear that Sugihara was risking his and his family's lives to do the right thing. And, the writing makes it clear that being the child of someone who is willing to do the right thing can be difficult, but well worth it.
A beautiful book.
Heroic tale.......2005-05-02
Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in 1940. As the Germans invaded Poland, thousands of refugees flooded into Lithuania begging for visas that would allow them to travel to safety. Despite repeated orders from his government, Sugihara signed travel visas around the clock and saved thousands of Jewish lives. He followed his conscience knowing full well the social and professional consequences that would follow. The drama of the events and the courage of Sugihara and his family make this true story unforgettable. Dom Lee's sepia tone illustrations complement the story and convey the desperation and fear of the refugees and the bravery of the Sugihara family.
Each of us can make a difference.......2004-05-25
This is such a powerful little book. I used it with my sixth grade class as part of a unit on Japanese internment camps with the books Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury. While these books are excellent at helping students to understand what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II, it wasn't until I read them Passage to Freedom that the students began to more fully understand that they could take a stand as individuals to stop prejudice. Each of us, if we are brave enough, has the power to make a difference. Chiune Sugihara was brave, and he was determined to do what he knew in his heart was right. Because of him, thousands of Jews escaped from certain death. This book is priceless.
Book Description
Backpacking through Europe for the first time changes your life. New friendships are forged over a bottle of cheap wine; old friends go their separate ways; you fall in love in the first town and forget about it in the second. You get bored with wearing the same clothes, tired of sleeping in crowded dorms…yet you still have an unforgettable, fantastic time.
In Rite of Passage, backpackers taking their all-important first visit to Europe tell it like it really is. They describe crossing the language barrier in Corfu, meeting the locals in Prague, surviving hostel life in London, finding love in Paris and overindulging in Greece.
Rite of Passage is the perfect companion for backpackers - the stories are raw and fresh, inspirational and honest, and cut straight to the heart of the European travel experience.
Customer Reviews:
A Captivating Bundle of Inspiring Travel Short Stories.......2006-12-29
Pretty much all the reviewers seem to be in agreement that this is a very worthwhile read. Anyone who has the slightest bit of interest in travel will not be disappointed. The collections of short stories of travels in Europe are easy to read and entertaining. The very fitting title explains how a lot of North American and Australian youngsters start out in order to enter the independent international travel world. Most common of Americans who wish to get their feet wet in the monumental first time experience of going abroad. These riveting stories capture the array of the emotions a young traveler might experience from felicity, excitement, enthusiasm, to pure awe from being in a strange surrounding and not having the smallest clue about what your doing. Much like the first time you have sex.
The book is organized into a series of independent stories in a host of European countries. Each of them always seem to have some sort of twist or surprise ending. In between the chapters are excepts from the Lonely Planet travel forum, usually with advice or jokes about travel related inquiries. There really is no other book like it in print today. That is; a book about young travelers experiencing Europe mostly for the first time, carrying nothing more than their backpacks.
I was a bit skeptical of reading a book from the very broad and boring sounding "travel literature" section. Imagining it would resemble a personal journal filled with long stale entries filled with personal grievances about life. This was not the case with "Rite of Passage". Every short has something unique and promising at the end of the story. Most of them are humorous and inspiring, all of them arouse excitement in anyone from someone onboard a plane heading to Europe to a travel-hungry day dreamer at home. This book will most likely wet your appetite for more about European travel.
A great read........2006-02-23
I'm preparing for a trip to Europe, and reading firsthand accounts prepared me for a lot of backpacking quirks that traditional guidebooks don't convey. Will be taking this with me on my trip!
Tells it like it is.......2005-11-16
I purchased this book 4 months after returning from my own lengthy backpacking trip. Within the first few essays I was in tears. It so perfectly captures the experience of traveling abroad that it immediately made me wistful for my own trip, even the stressful and absurd parts. I disagree with the idea that these are cliched or second-rate depictions of teen-angst, and as someone who's been in many of the situations described, I can only say that it's clear that anyone who thinks so has not actually taken a backpacking trip. Somehow it never boils down to the museums and monuments you saw, but you look back fondly on the late night sitting in the courtyard of your hostel with 4 strangers drinking wine and telling stories.
This book is a must-read for anyone who has taken this "rite of passage" trip. You will find yourself gasping for breath as you alternately laugh in recognition, or cry in wistfulness. For those who love to travel or are considering a trip, definitely read this book, but I might recommend waiting until you get back, as your appreciation will be much deeper.
Recommended!.......2005-03-03
Great short essays that really get you in the mood to wanna pick up your bags and leave! even the "scary" stories of europe wanted to just make you get up and go on an adventure yourself. Fastest book i've ever read, never put it down!
Good Prep for European Adventures.......2004-09-17
As only a high school student, many of the books essays contained nothing I was preparing to experience, but read it, nevertheless, as I prepared to embark on my first trip to Europe (a language-immersion program). The book was utterly fascinating. There were enough catchy, intriguing tales of excitement abroad that when there was the occasional one I did not like, I could merely skip to the next. While some stories contained more mature topics, all were enjoyable, and many made me laugh out loud. This book is definitely appropriate for young teens and above, and is a great ice-breaker for those awaiting a first trip to Europe, or a way to somehow remember one's first journey overseas.
Book Description
In Passage to Ararat, which received the National Book Award in 1976, Michael J. Arlen goes beyond the portrait of his father, the famous Anglo-Armenian novelist of the 1920s, that he created in Exiles to try to discover what his father had tried to forget: Armenia and what it meant to be an Armenian, a descendant of a proud people whom conquerors had for centuries tried to exterminate. But perhaps most affectingly, Arlen tells a story as large as a whole people yet as personal as the uneasy bond between a father and a son, offering a masterful account of the affirmation and pain of kinship.
Customer Reviews:
An extraordinary book of memoir and history.......2007-03-13
I read Passage to Ararat thirty years ago, and it continues to ring loud in my memory. Over the years I've given it to many friends as a present. The book is a memoir of Michael Arlen uncovering and discovering his Armenian heritage. It's intimate and personal, a window into the peculiar way history, individual memory and collective tragedy mix. I couldn't help but think of the Jewish and Palestinian experiences as I read it.
Getting to Know Me.......2006-07-22
In THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN, Carlos Castaneda takes forever to realize that what he is going to learn is not the pharmacopia of Yaqui Indians. We, the readers, get pretty darn fed up with his obtuse wonderings about "what the heck is going on here ?" Castaneda used this literary device to introduce what turned out to be a very long series of books about other ways of seeing the world. I felt somewhat the same about the style in PASSAGE TO ARARAT, though as far as honesty goes, I would put all my money on Arlen, rather than Castaneda. After finishing Arlen's short, but hard-hitting book, I still felt that he had somehow graded, planed, hammered, and sandpapered my emotions into accepting the transition from "I don't give a damn about the past. I didn't really love my father or understand him. I can't identify with Armenians." to feeling Armenian, to feeling outraged about the early 20th century genocide of "his" people. He wrote of this transition as a result of a trip he took to Soviet Armenia in the 1970s. I like how he wrote about Armenia and the people he met there. I even like how he wrote about Istanbul, which he visited afterwards. But I could hardly believe in that gradual transition. I still do feel that it is a literary device to make a "story" out of this work, and I feel that such a device wasn't necessary. I am not Armenian, but as a Jew I can feel pain when I think of genocide, the many other genocides that sit right in front of us----Native Americans, the Middle Passage, Cambodians, Tasmanians, Rwandans, Darfur---you can add your own. How can a man (a literary man who deals naturally in expressing feelings, ideas, longings, and the pain of the human soul) say that the genocide of Armenians meant little to him ? Maybe we don't want to confront our own past, OK, but do I have to be African to mourn the 800,000 dead Rwandans ? If I am not Cambodian, can I never feel shock and sadness at what was done by the Khmer Rouge ? Where are our American Indian brothers and sisters ?---I ask you in God's name.
Other than this comment, I can only say that this is a fine book about Armenia as it was in the 1970s. You get a lot of well-written, easily-digestible Armenian history, up to and including many pages on the genocide. How long is there going to be an argument about "whether it occurred or not ?" What, did a million people just up and commit suicide ? There is very little about the Soviet aspect of being in the Soviet Union, which since 1991 is beside the point now. I see there is an updated edition, which I did not have. It is also a fine book about changes of heart, even if I still do doubt it could have been that sequenced.
Brilliant.......2006-02-17
I think this book is magnificent.I love it.It really does give accurate historical information.
"Genocide"?.......2005-05-07
It just astonished me as how certain discursive formations can actually lead people to believe as the 'real' reality. It does not matter whether for an event to 'really happen' or not. What matters is that you hear it on a radio or read it on a newspaper or website or even talk about it at the water-cooler. Those who have had the chance to watch 'Wag the Dog' might get the idea of how such 'reality' is constructed.
On a more advanced level 'discursivity', a la Foucault, is a building block of a discourse in which certain linkages, here and their, add to what ordinary people believe on the street.
Now obviously Hitler was one of the worst things that happened during the 20th century. This is commonsense. But to add certain 'material' so as to advance another claim by building upon Hitler, is something that should be carefully approached, at least for people who at least visit and read stuff through Amazon.
If a chain in a series of discursive formations can be shown to be weak or invalid than it would be proven that that chain of a discourse is on shaky grounds, and that most of what is known about it is likely to be false.
Unfortunately we see certain 'material' is attached to certain claims so as to resemble the Holocaust. Let us revisit a single claim on part of those would like to exploit the events during the early 20th century. A reviewer, for instance, obviously bought one claim and thus knows it to be the 'truth'
Adolf Hitler: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Now has anybody bothered to investigate it. No, of course. "It sounds like as if it is true, so why not believe it". Well fortunately there are still people who like investigating such stuff.
Read for example :
Heath W. Lowry
Washington, D.C.
Political Communication and Persuasion, Volume 3, Number 2 (1985)
Abstract This article traces the history of a purported Adolf Hitler quote which cites the perecent of the world's lack of reaction to the fate of Armenians during the First World War as a justification for his planned extermination of European Jewry in the course of the Second World War. By a detailed examination of the genesis of this quotation the author demonstrates that there is no historical basis for attributing such a statement to Hitler...
[...]
If one is serious about really getting into history, rather than believing simply what is out their in the popular press,
I would additionally suggest to take a tour of the documents of Ambassador Morgenthau. First let us not take any word for having a Godly truth 'Its ambassador so its gotta be true' mentality is ok if you're ok with it (respect of thought). But there are historical evidence that suggests that Morgenthau did not even know Ottoman scripture, and that this is proved throughout his letters when he attempts to translate 'words' and 'dates' of events. Do not hesitate to read...
[...]
For those who have CAREFULLY read what I have written so far, notice I am not either on one side of the argument between Armenian historians or historians of the Ottoman empire, but that I have just thrown out some thought provoking information so that one will at least ask some questions before believing what they read. Doubtless there will be those occasional pointless replies to this review, but again all I am saying is, think before you react. Now one could argue that I am saying is a postmodernist crituque and historical relativism. That would be false. I believe in historical analysis, as a scientific enterprise (and only the scientific version of it). But then again let us not forget that some American historians who were studying the case at hand were bombed by Armenians. Now if history is written by historians and that some historians (i.e. UCLA professor Stanford Shaw)are bullied so as not to investigate certain historical matters than, at least if you have a capacity to think critically than be suspicious about it. [...]
By the way absolutely nothing is mentioned about the equal ammount of civilian Turks that were slaugthered by Russian backed Armenian militia. Nor anything about the terrorism campaign of Armenians during the 1970's that left thousands of people dead and wounded. To say "denying genocide is a wrong thing" is one thing. But in doing so if one is denying the death of tens of thousands of innocent Turks, is called hypocrism and puts one in ethically shaky grounds.
The latest British governemeents acceptance that the "blue book", which Armenian claims are based upon, have been declared by the government itself to be a WW1 time propaganda material. Yes you heard it right!
Here's another eye opener: Often the claim is made there 1 million Armenians were murdered. What they do not say that the same material they indicate that a "genocide" happened says that
the ENTIRE Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was 800 thousand (200 thousand difference!) MOREOVER Keep in mind that the Armenian diaspora, that builds its own desire to have a national identity, has a population of more than 9 million people across the world. HOW CAN this be??? Well thats how nationalism is formed: impossibile numbers, man on white horse, the evil "other" etc.... So this "genocide" attitude is more of identity building rather than real history.
Well I hope I contributed on an intellectual level and I hope 'thought thugs' would not misunderstand what I have suggested.
Coming of (middle) age.......2004-10-05
Michael Arlen takes a very novel approach to discovering his roots. He freely admits early on that he doesn't even like Armenians, although he himself is of Armenian descent. Arlen's father shielded him from the burdens that virtually all Armenians bare: that of the genocide/massacres of 1915. It is not until his father's death that Arlen begins to interact with the Armenian community and ultimately takes a trip to Soviet Armenia. He describes the country and the people in a detached manner and with a dry sense of humor. His research of Armenian history is rather academic at first. Ultimately he is affected by the great suffering of his people.
Arlen asks many questions that he cannot and does not answer. His references to certain Armenian qualities as "childlike" was offensive, and his attempt to examine the Armenian race using traditional psychological analysis, determining finally that Armenians are burdened with self-hate, had its limitations. But I do not view Passage to Ararat as a scholarly treatise. It is instead one man's journey to the land of his ancestors in order to come to grips with who he is and whether he should be proud of that.
Average customer rating:
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Walter Benjamin's Passages (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
Pierre Missac
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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20th Century
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ASIN: 026263175X |
Book Description
translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen
It was in Paris in 1937 that Georges Bataille introduced Pierre Missac to Walter Benjamin. This meeting launched the young French scholar on a half-century of engagement with Benjamin's work that culminated in the writing of Walter Benjamin's Passages.
Taking a cue from his subject, Missac adopts a form of indirect critique in which independent details examined seemingly in passing emerge over the course of the book as parts of larger patterns of understanding. The interlocked essays move among such topics as reading and writing, collecting, the dialectic, and time and history. Many of the subjects are standard in Benjamin studies, but the freshness and directness of Missac's response to them makes this book compelling.
After the war, Missac took it on himself to make Benjamin's work more widely known in France. He published a series of translations and critical essays and this one book, which appeared just a few months after his death in 1986. Benjamin, who committed suicide at age forty-eight, has no marked grave, and in one sense Walter Benjamin's Passages is a tombeau, a poem honoring a writer's achievement that in calmer times was written for the dedication of a physical monument but now must stand in place of the absent monument. It is a work of sophisticated and imaginative criticism that shows how Benjamin's work anticipated the future and how--as Missac's excursus on the glass atrium in the architecture of the 1980s shows--it can be fruitfully extended.
Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought
Average customer rating:
- Intriguing but NOT for children
- A Snore so Far . . .
- Could & Should have cut 250 pages
- good story, good reader
- This is a really great book!!!!
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The Plains Of Passage
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Crown
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Mammoth Hunters
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The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children)
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The Valley of Horses
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The Clan of the Cave Bear
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Clan of the Cave Bear
ASIN: 0517580497
Release Date: 1990-09-24 |
Book Description
The best-selling author of the Earth's Children series continues the epic story of Ayla, the mythical heroine of Ice Age Europe.
The Plains of Passage takes Ayla and the brave Jondolar on a dangerous cross-continental odyssey in search of that place they call home.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing but NOT for children.......2007-09-04
Awesome research of this time period. Description of daily life very vivid. Sexual content is NOT for children, though describes a unique view of family life. Ayla is one of my favorite women who can do anything!
A Snore so Far . . ........2007-04-04
Truthfully, I loved Clan of the Cave Bear and Valley of the Horses in this series. Each was exciting and informative without being tedious as Mammoth Hunters and Plains of Passage have become.
Mz Auel's descriptions have become so awful I cross my eyes and turn the page as quickly as possible. Mammoth Hunters was frustrating as Ayla and Jondolar (which we know will end up together anyways) have stupid insignificant arguments that cause them to break up and send Ayla into the arms of Ranec. I know this misunderstanding thing is a standard plot device to get things moving but really, is this suffering really neccessary for the reader?
Then Jondolar and Ayla get back together and go on this long painful Journey in Plains of Passage. The most interesting part is when they find any signs of other humans. Other than that it's all plants and animals and boring sex. I have never in my life skipped through love scenes but every sexual event in this book is repeated over and over until I never want to hear the words "well", "dip", and "manhood" in a sentence ever again. I'm not even halfway through and I'm ready to throw it in the trash. Good thing it was a present.
Could & Should have cut 250 pages .......2007-03-21
This story is as good as the others. Auel has me hooked on her enticing adventure stories. That being said, Jean Auel is at best a Harlequin author. Her overly repetitive writing style which includes event, tool, leather, clothing, weapon and sex descriptions is enough to make me pull my hair out (if I have to read how "having 'Pleasures' with Jondalar isn't like when Broud did it" one more time, I'm literally going to puke.)
But worse in this particular book is the landscape and vegetation descriptions.....they go waaaayyyyyyyyy beyond tedious. Just because an author does more historical research for a book certainly doesn't mean the reader wants the information. The draw of historical fiction is usually the author weaving fascinating factual events in with fictitious characters or vise-versa. The problem with archeological/anthropological and botanical historical fiction is that what is verifiable just isn't very captivating unless you happen to have a penchant for those subjects. Let's face it Jean, your fan base reads these books for fun and entertainment and if we happen to learn something about the history of the earth in the process....great. But it's the characters and story that draw us in not the details of your research.
I highly recommend skimming the pages of this book that have no quotation marks. You'll enjoy it a lot more.
good story, good reader.......2007-02-06
Continuation of Ayla's story is excellent and beautifully read. There are a couple of production problems in this 28-CD set where 30-second sections are repeated (better than leaving them out!). That sort of makes you do a double take. The story continues with Ayla and Jondalar's adventures and discoveries that are sometimes too convenient or implausible that all this happens in one lifetime to one couple, but is nevertheless fascinating. Some would probably prefer to skip the infinite detail of the landscape, flora and fauna. Some might find the sexual encounters a little "gratuitous" after the first few. But I like it all. I listen during my work commute and this pair have kept me company for a couple months now. It's like a visit with friends every morning and evening. I read the first 4 books in the 80's and 90's, but decided I would "review" before getting into the 5th that has been out fewer years. Listening to books on CD is a new treat for me, so I chose to do it that way once I determined that I enjoyed Sandra Burr's reading. She has a remarkable ability with different voices, a skill that seems to improve as the volumes have progressed.
This is a really great book!!!!.......2006-08-30
Wow!...These other reviews are a bit harsh. Although many of their criticisms are valid, they are incredibly exadurated. This book did sometimes vear into overly long descriptive tangents and have a few repetetive sex scenes. However, as someone who is interested in prehistoric archaeology, I must say that this book and the other four in the series were a joy to read. I can't wait for the next one!... What is remarkable about the Plains of Passage is the development of the themes that underlie the series. Auel manages to inorporate lots of ideas about prehistoric people that push me to question why our society holds our ancient ancestors in such low regard. People frequently assume that because there is no definitive evidence for an advanced prehistoic culture that one must not have existed. In reality, there could have been many dark ages where knowledge was lost in the past...the advanced building techniques used to construct the ancient Egyptian pyramids point to a more advanced prehistory and losses of knowledge rather than theories about atlantis. Anyway, if Auel can inspire me to think so indepthly about these things while reviewing the flora and fauna of the upper paleolithic, creating unique cultural structures, developing the romance between Ayla and Jondalar, and telling a good story I am impressed. It is also interesting to hear someone's theories about the way things were made and done in the past. This book is especially fun for archaeology majors on summer vacation!!
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Tormented Births: Passages to Modernity in Europe and the Middle East (Library of Modern Middle East Studies)
Isam al-Khafaji
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Economic Policy & Development
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ASIN: 1860649769
Release Date: 2004-10-21 |
Book Description
This is a radically new explanation of the processes of social, political and economic development in the Middle East over the past two centuries. In a broadside attack on the existing literature, al-Khafaji shows that the stress on the cultural distinctiveness of the Middle East vis-agrave;-vis Europe is misguided, and that the experience of colonialism and imperialism has not irrevocably distorted the region's natural development. On the contrary, there are striking similarities in the formation and evolution of power structures, social groups and rural-urban spaces in the Middle East and Europe. Based on the most interdisciplinary of approaches which combines political science, development economics, history, sociology and cultural studies, the book concludes by presenting a novel explanation of the persistence of authoritarian regimes in the region.
Book Description
Deftly combining archival sources with evocative life histories, Anastasia Karakasidou brings welcome clarity to the contentious debate over ethnic identities and nationalist ideologies in Greek Macedonia. Her vivid and detailed account demonstrates that contrary to official rhetoric, the current people of Greek Macedonia ultimately derive from profoundly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Throughout the last century, a succession of regional and world conflicts, economic migrations, and shifting state formations has engendered an intricate pattern of population movements and refugee resettlements across the region. Unraveling the complex social, political, and economic processes through which these disparate peoples have become culturally amalgamated within an overarchingly Greek national identity, this book provides an important corrective to the Macedonian picture and an insightful analysis of the often volatile conjunction of ethnicities and nationalisms in the twentieth century.
"Combining the thoughtful use of theory with a vivid historical ethnography, this is an important, courageous, and pioneering work which opens up the whole issue of nation-building in northern Greece."—Mark Mazower, University of Sussex
Customer Reviews:
Where are my human rights?.......2006-03-09
Where are our human rights as Hellenic makedonians who lived in the region before the 6th and 8th century?
My ancestors spoke a greek dialect and eight hundred years after our leader died, Alexander the Great, slavic and mongulian minorities are falsifying my history. I once again ask the author where are my rights?
The author's claim of a Macedonian Question, is more than a mere squabble over a name. It is a well-designed scheme for annexing the northern Greek provinces of Macedonia and Thrace. It started during the inter-war period, by the decisions of the Comintern and the Balkan communist parties seeking to establish a united (Macedonian and Thracian) State. Subsequently it was Tito, in 1944, who tried to establish such a State within Yugoslavia. He changed the name of Southern Serbia (which had been known as Vardashka since 1913) to "Macedonia" and then proceeded to establish, out of the Slavs of the region (Bulgarians and Serbs), a new Slavic nation inappropriately called "Macedonian".
To transform this theoretical concept into a political reality Tito:
Concocted in 1944 a "Macedonian government" as a first step to the setting up of a Socialist Republic of Macedonia".
Dubbed the local Slavonic dialect "Macedonian language". A special committee worked for years to turn this dialect into the "official Macedonian language".
In 1968 the "Macedonian Church" came into being irregularly, by a government coup. As a result, it was not recognized as a formal Church by any Orthodox Patriarchs or by the Vatican.
In 1969, the "History of the Macedonian nation" was published. Any reference in the world's archives to Macedonia and to historical figures and historical events connected in any way with Macedonia over the millennia, was manipulated and forcibly given a "Macedonian (Slavic) identity".
Thus, politicians and historians collaborated:
to usurp the name, the emblems, and the history of Macedonia;
to set in motion expansionist aspirations, by renaming Greek Macedonia as "Aegean Macedonia", i.e. part of a united Macedonia and issued maps limiting Greece's northern frontiers to Mount Olympus;to allege the existence of a "Macedonian minority" in Greece.
Their theoretical basis for these claims was based on the assertion that:
The ancient Macedonians, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, etc. were not Greeks (an allegation which is repeated in the recent FYROM's school textbooks for 1992-3).
After the arrival of Slavic tribes in the Balkans in the 6th century AD those Slavs, that managed to reach the Byzantine Provinces of Ancient Macedonia, intermarried with the local non-Greek Macedonians and thus they formed a new ethnic group, the "Slavo Macedonians" who subsequently were simply referred to as "Macedonians".
Unfortunately for the author, World history does not record a similar case of usurpation of a people's name and history by another group of people.
Lack of the slightest credibility on the part of the pseudo-Macedonian "nation" of Skopje is furthermore revealed by the single fact that Skopje's Bulgarians and Serbs discovered only after 1944 that back in the sixth century they had been transformed from Slavs into Macedonians. (The Albanian Kossovarians are going to ask for their independence in the coming months. Will this uprise encourage the oppressed Albanians living in FYROM?)
To claim that the Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks, however, and to use the term "Slav" with reference to the creation of the "Macedonian nation" is a trick that the author has used.
The "Macedonian Nation" does not, nor did it ever exist. The Macedonians were Greeks, they spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods (who were inhabiting the Macedonian mountain of Olympus) and performed the same sacrifices, in the same sanctuaries as all the other Greeks. Only, if the author had a better understanding of city-states would she realise this.
The Macedonians, together with the rest of Greeks, possess according to Herodotus, the kind and constituent element that composed a nation:
"And next the kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech, and the shrines of gods and the sacrifices that we have in common and the likeness of our way of life " Herodotus, History VIII, 144,2 (Loeb, A.D. Godley).
Unfortunately, the author has re-written propaganda and has forgotten to mention that the Slavic dialect spoken in Central and Western Macedonia (Northern Greece) is an ancient Greek language. It contains 1164 Homeric words. Due to the long coexistence of Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians, this dialect has been enriched with Bulgarian words and endings and has nothing to do with the so-called "Macedonian language" invented in 1944-45, which is a mixture of the Bulgarian and the Serbo-Croatian languages.
Exelent Book!!.......2004-03-21
I was amaized to find (and read) book like MS Karakasidou's.It is not so offten that book is writen without prejudice and with bearing the facts of the existence of the Macedonian minority in Republic of Greece. Not Slavophonic Greeks, but Slavic Macedonians, natives to the Northen Greece, the teritory of Makedonia.
We can debate here, of how well,or indepth, of acurate the book is, nothing is perfect in this world, and if it is, it will be boring, so for me this book done its justice. And told the story of forgotten Nation (minority) who's existance can not be forgotten and left on the mercy of the official Athens.
The book its self reise lot of questions and in the same time give lots of answers, wich,person who for first time exopsed to the intricate history of the Balkans and specialy Macedonia, have more clearer picture of things.
I can only aplaude to the honesty, determination and curage of MS Karakasidou, to publish this book.
It is time for the world, to hear about the Macedonian struglle for recognition in Republic of Greece.And Greece's extended eforts of assimilation, and above all the "Democracy" wich eluded this people from 1913 to this day.
WELL researched an UNBIASED.......2004-01-30
It is interesting to see what other write for reviews based solely on their OWN BIAS and a even mentioned that the author is of Turkish origin . . . NEWS FLASH the war has been over YEARS ago! This book is very much the truth. It is hard understand the views of those who are RACIST, BIASED, and want to have us take their opinion when their do not look from the outside. I have reseached this FOR YEARS, from INSIDE and OUT and I will have to agree with this book, though some parts I do not, very few. SO if your looking to learn more about this "territory" read this and more. And yes I AM Greek! Proud of it everyday as I walk the streets of Athens. But "Pride" here goes TOO far whith more of a definition of BIAS, RACISM . . .
Old style propaganda.......2002-12-28
It's always interesting to see an author of Turkish descent to write a book about Greek territories. Yet, the result was the expected one. "Macedonia is not exclusively Greek", "her obsession with the truth had brought to her death threats, apparently from outraged Greeks", "nation-building in northern greece (Macedonia)" etc. etc. and Karakasidu found of course protection from Anglo-Americans.
Does this reminds a bit of the preparations for the Cyprus 1974 invasion?
Yes! I vote 1 on this propaganda book.
Good piece of scolarship........2001-04-06
This book is a work on (historical?) anthropology and in that field my qualifications are non existent: at best I am an amatuer (in the french sense). That said, I found the arguments of the book rather convincing. The book is obviously well researched and well thought out. I highly recommend it to anybody but esspecially to Greeks like myself who would like to have a look at (a part of) the history of modern Greece, more objective than the myths presented in official textbook-history writing. It is a good start. I can't refrain from commenting on the other reviews. Firstly I dont think that the author chose to participate in "politically charged debates", rather, she was drawn into them. Secondly it is unfair (not to say stupid) to criticise such a book for its limited scope, it is like criticising an encyclopaedia for having a very broad scope! Finally this is an anthropological book and it should be judged as such. To endorse or codemn (!) it based on whether it agrees or not with your "ideology" is an act that says something about the reviewer, but nothing about the book itself.
Customer Reviews:
Masterpiece.......2002-09-15
Superb work of Marxist historiography. Not a history, strictly speaking, but an essay on state forms in transition from the ancient slave societies of Greece and Rome to the fragmented monarchies of early medievalism. Stunning sweep, and a masterpiece of contemporary English prose which I believe will one day rank with Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua as a milestone in the evolution of literary English.
Rethinking ethnocentric historical materialism.......2002-06-27
Perry Anderson is a leading editor of 'New Left Review' and well-known Marxist historian. This book is the first volume of a two part work. The second volume is 'Lineage of the Absolutist State' Those two volumes cover the whole history of pre-capitalist Western world from Greco-Roman antiquity to Absolutist monarchies. It's incredible how one research could cover that range of time. Moreover, he maintains his distinctive perspective throughout two volumes. His problem is the same one as Marx and Weber posed: the formation of capitalism. But Anderson's problem is somewhat narrower: why did the capitalism emerge in Europe rather than in more advanced China, India or Islamic world at that time? To answer the question, he traces back to Greco-Roman antiquity. His answer in the first volume is this: it's because the West was formulated through combining antiquity and feudalism. It doesn't seem distinctive at all. But he questioned in the line of Marxist tradition and his answer could have meaning only in that line. his terminology is different from traditional Marxist one. He recasts the conventional definition of antiquity and feudalism: he contends that the antiquity and the Western feudalism had idiosyncratic modes of production. For example, the slavery itself, which was the dominant mode of production in antiquity, could be common in that time. But outside Greco-Roman world, the slavery was not dominant mode of production. Moreover, the Western feudalism was formed through fusing totally different modes of production: a synthesis of Greco-Roman society and German society. So features of Western feudalism are restricted to its own context, not catholic ones. If we treat it as universal, Anderson argues, we can't explain why the capitalism merged only in the West. To prove his proposition, Anderson compares the different paths Western Europe and Eastern Europe followed. Furthermore, he redefines the relationship between superstructure and infrastructure. As Braudel maintained with his jargon, longue duree, Anderson asserts that components of superstructure, such as the state, religion, value, law, convention, also affect the mode of production.
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