He was truly a renaissance man and center of intellectual life: essayist, journalist, founder of a left-wing daily, worshipped photographer of the great and humble, and editor of both Peretz and Ansky. He was murdered in a Jewish cemetery by Ukranians in Tarnopol after escaping the Nazi's. His daughter survived, and was instrumental in getting this book published. Unfortunately she died earlier this year prior to publication. This collection is a treasure. My favorites are the famed photo of a Lublin cheder (1924), and the one of Khane Kolski, taken when she was 106, in which she says that her son in America doesnt even believe that she is still alive. To me, the photos create a lost world; but to the readers of The Forward, for whom the photos were taken, it probably reminded them why they fled the shtetls for the Golden Land of America.

For people interested in Central-Eastern European politics this book is a must-read. It provides a reader with a thorough and provocative insight into the murky mechanisms of the use of secret police to control the transition process in former communist states, and Poland in particular. As the authors show, the former communist secret services have not really lost their influence on the post-1989 politics. They were also instrumental in providing intelligence and security that enabled the party apparatchics to profit from the transformation and impose their own rules on the changing environment. It is so far the only book that documents and explains the processes through which the personnel and resources of the police-state apparatus have in good part been privatized through the creation of a powerful private security sector linked to the former communist elite.

From this vantage, this publication is a valuable and unique guide to understanding of Eastern European socio-political reality.

Gary T. Marx comments in his Foreword: “Los and Zybertowicz thoughtfully and creatively probe beneath the veneer of reality constructed by those who were (and some who remain) masters of deception. This study is a model of what scholarship on secrecy-enshrouded topics should be”.

While in high school I read a few excerpts from "Quest" in a "physics reader"; they were all about Infeld's first meetings with Einstein and Dirac. They were written very well and made a strong impression on me at the time...The book is completely different from what I expected. The excerpts I had originally seen were practically the only ones of interest to anyone interested in the major players in early quantum mechanics or relativity theory. Most of the book is about his background as a Jew in Poland, first as a child in the ghetto, then as a physicist suffering terrible discrimination, and finally how he left Poland during the war, and was saved from the concentration camps in which his family members died.
An epilog added some more history of which I was previously ignorant - why Infeld left Canada and went back to (communist) Poland.
If you have read this far you probably think I was disappointed, but nothing could be further from the truth. Infeld writes so well, and the "gossip" is so carefully analyzed, that the book makes fascinating, thought-provoking, and often touching, reading. For example, the story of how Infeld, although Jewish, was granted a "docentship" (something like an assistant lecturer) is at the same time incredible but understandable to anyone who has been involved in "politics" of this sort.
I waited 30 years to read this book, and found it to be completely different from what I expected; but I finished it in two sittings and can't recommend it highly enough.

I brought this book for my granddaughter (3 years old). She enjoyed the story and had many questions. She particularly liked the illustrations (which are also done by Mr. Ungar)and liked looking for Rachel in each picture.

The story is adapted from a Jewish fable and takes place in the town of Chelm. The people in the town are much enamoured of the moon and each artisan and trademan tries to find a way to coax the moon out of the sky (a musician will play beautiful music, a baker will make wonderful bread, etc.) but it is clever little Rachel who finally finds a way to capture the beauty of the moon.

My granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed the story and now asks me to read it to her on a regular basis.

I look forward to Mr. Ungar's next book.

This beautiful memoir opened a window into a world that I knew once existed, but that I had never actually seen before. We have all heard rebbe stories, have learned from the books left by these men, and have read of the lives of their followers. This, however, is a glimpse into the private lives of the aristocrats of European Hasidism. I do not use the word aristocracy lightly. The world of European Hasidism was highly stratified. The Rebbe's Daughter was top drawer. She lived in a large compound of servants, storerooms, and guest rooms for visitors to her father. There were coachmen, cooks, and governesses. There was no idle luxury. Every member of the rebbe's family lived a life of constant and devoted service. They served the Rebbe's followers, but also, and far more importantly, they served God.

Devotion to Torah pervaded every aspect and every moment of life. There is a kind of awe-filled beauty to a life in which every action, every thought is examined and consecrated to divine service. Devotion to Torah was so complete that even in the icy Polish winter the family shunned clothing made of wool. Better to shiver in silk and cotton than to risk a chance linen fiber that may render a woolen coat forbidden shatnes.

I cannot decide which aspect of the Rebbe's Daughter is more remarkable. The way it shows us a vivid picture of a vanished time and place, or the way it opens before us the way of thinking of a mind totally devoted to Torah.

CITATION FOR 2000 AAASS/ORBIS BOOKS PRIZE FOR POLISH STUDIES for an outstanding English-language book on any aspect of Polish affairs co-funded by Orbis Books in London

Different cultures at different moments in history seem to construct civil disobedience and popular protest differently. Where one goes from there depends on two things: one's critical methodology and one's creative hunches. Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993 (University of Michigan Press, 1999) by Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik has just the right mix of innovation and inspiration. It offers a new set of insights into the major points of seismic shift in post-communist Central Europe.

Rebellious Civil Society speaks powerfully about, and to, a particular time and place: Poland in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Placing Poland in a comparative framework, Ekiert and Kubik hack their way through the thickets of theory and data. Central to their discussion is the question: what is the role of popular protest in the consolidation of new democracy? It is a threat or a godsend?

Ekiert and Kubik write out of passion for freedom, democracy, and human agency. Their argument is characteristically detailed and lucid, and is supported by a reading of data that has powerful political implications. *Rebellious Civil Society" is a stimulating and well-argued book. It is so well-argued and so lucidly written that it is tempting to write a citation consisting entirely of quotations from the text. Such a combination of compelling scholarship and elegant writing seems almost illicit in a book that ostensibly falls under the rubric of political science.

(the prize was presented on November 11, 2000 at the AAASS 32nd National Convention in Denver, Colorado)

This is THE book for all those interested in a better understanding of Eastern Europe. It is a model of its kind, unique in scope, shows a mastery of multiple langauge sources, and is a scholarly yet readable account of the history of the largest European country of its day, the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealthy of 1569. Prof. Snyder's account is masterly, even-handed, and scrupulously fair with a clear and valuable thesis. It brings the complex strands of a neglected part of Europe into focus and explains while Poland and its Eastern neighbors were able to reach a peaceful accommodation after the downfall of the soviet Union. Tragically, the Balkans did not enjoy the longterm fencebuilding that kept this corner of the world at peace. Snyder's account of the Polish-Ukrainian conflicts during World War II is groundbreaking and fills a vital gap in this story. Not since "God's Playground" has the story been told so well. Wonderful book. Buy it.

Reflections of South Carolina gives an excellent glimpse into all that is South Carolina. Photographs range from the beautiful beaches along the coast to college campuses and the biggest cities to the smallest counties throughout the state. The photographs by Robert Clark are exquisite and make you feel as if you are a part of them. You do not have to be a South Carolina native - I'm not!- to appeciate this book. Makes a wonderful gift to anyone who loves this state.

A to-the-point explanation of what happened and why. And more importantly, 'how' did a group of relatively unarmed, untrained captives lead a military revolt against the Nazi war machine?

De Saxe wrote this book as a protest and a call for reform. "War," he wrote, "is a science covered with shadows in whose obscurity one cannot move with an assured step." He called for reforms in organization, discipline and strategy required to build effective armies. De Saxe is one of the great links between Vegetius and Napoleon. Many of his ideas now commonplace, were considered absurd in his own time. No one can understand the evolution of armies who has not read his works.

From the introduction of "My Reveries Upon the Art of War