In this memoir, Suzy Eban describes growing up in a Zionist family in Ismailia and Cairo in the 1920s and 1930s, visits to her grandparents in Palestine, the 1929 Arab riots near her grandparents’ Motza farmhouse outside Jerusalem, Aubrey (later Abba) Eban’s courtship, their marriage in 1945, Abba’s diplomatic role in pre-State Israel, his elevation at a young age as Israel’s first ambassador to the UN and to the US. Suzy recounts her role as a diplomat’s wife, a mother and a community activist (she was head of the Israel Cancer Association for almost 40 years), offers candid assessments of prominent political women in Israeli politics, Vera Weizmann, Golda Meir, Rachel Ben-Zvi and Paula Ben-Gurion, and gives insights about the rough-and-tumble Israeli politics of the 1980s. “This beautifully written, intelligent, and comprehensive memoir will reward readers interested in a behind-the-scenes understanding of Israeli history and politics.” — Deborah Schoeneman, Jewish Book Council “The first 100 or so pages of [Suzy Eban’s] narrative are absolutely scrumptious. Possessed of a sharp eye and a deft hand (parts of this section were published decades ago in an earlier form in The New Yorker), Eban excels at conjuring up the sights, sounds, scents and other sensuous evocations of her childhood in the 1920s and ‘30s in Ismailia” — Ina Friedman, Ha’aretz “Suzy Eban has provided a timely reminder of the vacuum left by [Abba] Eban's absence.” — Colin Schindler, The Jerusalem Post “Suzy [Eban] reveals through her ‘recollections’ a talent for evocative prose... The book’s many delights include intriguing snippets on Chaim Weizmann, David Ben Gurion, and their wives, Vera and Paula, and an emotional description of Suzy’s return to the country of her birth following President Anwar Sadat’s peace mission to Israel in 1977.” — Simon Round, Jewish Chronicle

An electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher; of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself; of how punk rock gave form and voice to her own fury and explosive energy. Solnit recounts how she came to recognize the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, the trauma that changed her, and the authority figures who routinely disdained and disbelieved girls and women, including her. Looking back, she sees all these as consequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women, and how she contended with that while becoming a writer and a public voice for women's rights. She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer--books themselves, the gay men around her who offered other visions of what gender, family, and joy could be, and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. These influences taught her how to write in the way she has ever since, and gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.

In Recollections of My Life as a Woman, Diane di Prima explores the first three decades of her extraordinary life. Born into a conservative Italian American family, di Prima grew up in Brooklyn but broke away from her roots to follow through on a lifelong commitment to become a poet, first made when she was in high school. Immersing herself in Manhattan's early 1950s Bohemia, di Prima quickly emerged as a renowned poet, an influential editor, and a single mother at a time when this was unheard of. Vividly chronicling the intense, creative cauldron of those years, she recounts her revolutionary relationships and sexuality, and how her experimentation led her to define herself as a woman. What emerges is a fascinating narrative about the courage and triumph of the imagination, and how one woman discovered her role in the world.

Dawn of Memories is a journey into the realm of early recollections of childhood and a search for the meaning of the remembrances. Since 1894, first memories have been a subject of hundreds of investigations around the world. The age of a person’s initial recollections, the content of the memories and various other topics are of enduring interest to people of all ages. Early recollections yield deep insights into an individual’s personality and ways of perceiving life, and can help both individuals and clinicians to employ these first memories for personality appraisal and growth. Building on earlier studies, Dawn of Memories presents a clear and understandable framework for interpreting early recollections in order to enhance self-understanding and personal development. Numerous captivating and informative examples detail the meaning of first remembrances in historical figures and people from diverse backgrounds. Clarke also focuses on capitalizing on strengths and an awareness of potentialities that emerge from reflecting upon early recollections. Readers will come away from this enlightening work with a better understanding of their own memories, their lives as result of these memories, and how to use them to resolve current issues in their lives.

John C. Kendrew (1917-1997) was a pioneer in structural biology and a catalyst for the emergence of molecular biology in the second half of the twentieth century. He was the first person to determine the three-dimensional structure of a protein at atomic resolution and, for this, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962. Kendrew ultimately became an international organizer, administrator, and advocate for science, and his expansive legacy lives on today. In this book, Paul M. Wassarman, a postdoctoral fellow with Kendrew in the late 1960s, delves into Kendrew's personal and scientific life to uncover the background, traits, and experiences of the man responsible for so many achievements within science and beyond. Wassarman shares previously unpublished stories of Kendrew, including his vital role in the rise of molecular biology at three world-famous scientific institutions: the Cavendish Laboratory, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and European Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Kendrew was an unwavering advocate for British and European science and one of the most gifted, influential, and accomplished figures in twentieth century science. A Place in History is a groundbreaking account of Kendrew's life that is perfect for anyone interested in learning about the person behind the many achievements.

Israel’s victory in the June 1967 Six Day War provided a unique opportunity for resolving the decades-old Arab-Zionist conflict. Having seized the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights, Israel for the first time in its history had something concrete to offer its Arab neighbors: it could trade land for peace. Yet the political deadlock persisted after the guns fell silent. This book sets outto find out why.Avi Raz places Israel’s conduct under an uncompromising lens. He meticulously examines the critical two years following the June war and substantially revises our understanding of how and why Israeli-Arab secret contacts came to naught. Mining newly declassified records in Israeli, American, British, and UN archives, as well as private papers of individual participants, Raz dispels the myth of overall Arab intransigence and arrives at new and unexpected conclusions. In short, he concludes that Israel’s postwar diplomacy was deliberately ineffective because its leaders preferred land over peace with its neighbors. The book throws a great deal of light not only on the post-1967 period but also on the problems and pitfalls of peacemaking in the Middle East today.

For over sixty years the state of Israel has proved adept at practising clandestine diplomacy--about which little is known, as one might expect. These hitherto undisclosed episodes in Israel's diplomatic history are revealed for the first time by the contributors to this volume, who explore how relations based upon patronage and personal friendships, as well as ties born from kinship and realpolitik both informed the creation of the state and later defined Israel's relations with a host of actors, both state and non-state. The authors focus on the extent to which Israel's clandestine diplomacies have indeed been regarded as purely functional and sub- ordinate to a realist quest for security amid the perceived hostility of a predominantly Muslim-Arab world, or have in fact proved to be manifestations of a wider acceptance--political, social and cultural--of a Jewish sovereign state as an intrinsic part of the Middle East. They also discuss whether clandestine diplomacy has been more effective in securing Israeli objectives than reliance upon more formal diplomatic ties constrained by inter- national legal obligations and how this often complex and at times contradictory matrix of clandestine relationships continues to influence perceptions of Israel's foreign policy.

Analyzing the ways U.S. culture has been formed and transformed in the 80s and 90s by its response to the Vietnam War and the AIDS epidemic, Marita Sturken argues that each has disrupted our conventional notions of community, nation, consensus, and "American culture." She examines the relationship of camera images to the production of cultural memory, the mixing of fantasy and reenactment in memory, the role of trauma and survivors in creating cultural comfort, and how discourses of healing can smooth over the tensions of political events. Sturken's discussion encompasses a brilliant comparison of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the AIDS Quilt; her profound reading of the Memorial as a national wailing wall—one whose emphasis on the veterans and war dead has allowed the discourse of heroes, sacrifice, and honor to resurface at the same time that it is an implicit condemnation of war—is particularly compelling. The book also includes discussions of the Kennedy assassination, the Persian Gulf War, the Challenger explosion, and the Rodney King beating. While debunking the image of the United States as a culture of amnesia, Sturken also shows how remembering itself is a form of forgetting, and how exclusion is a vital part of memory formation.

Bluetune is a whale born on a cold winter night in the deepest trench of the North Pacific Ocean, and his life begins with a profound challenge from the very first day. This challenge, right from the moment of his birth, deprives him of the opportunity for an ordinary life and compels him to adapt to his unique circumstances. He spends his early years with his mother, who is his sole caretaker. She ingeniously strives to adjust their circumstances as much as possible while imparting life skills and responsibilities to her child. However, in his teenage years, Bluetune’s life is confronted with deep challenges. These challenges, one after another, push him into the abyss of despair and a sense of defeat. Nevertheless, he learns to gather his inner strength and boldly confront these adversities, methodically unraveling their knots. He learns that nothing is without purpose, and no problem is without a solution. Bluetune’s life story serves as a representation of the journey undertaken by all those who transform the challenges of their lives into victories.

“Based on interviews with dozens of people and research in more than twenty archival collections, [this] cleareyed biography deserves to be called definitive.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Born in South Africa, educated in England, and ultimately a major figure in Israeli history, Abba Eban was a skilled debater, a master of multiple languages, and a passionate defender of the Jewish state. But his diplomatic presence was in many ways a contradiction unlike any the world has seen since. While he was celebrated internationally for his exceptional wit and his moderate, reasoned worldview, these same qualities painted him as elitist and foreign in his home country. The disparity in perception of Eban at home and abroad was such that both his critics and his friends agreed that he would have been a wonderful prime minister—in any country but Israel. In Abba Eban, Asaf Siniver paints a nuanced and complete portrait of one of the most complex figures in twentieth-century foreign affairs. We see Eban growing up and coming into his own as part of the Cambridge Union, and watch him steadily become known as “The Voice of Israel.” Siniver draws on a vast amount of interviews, writings, and other newly available material to show that, in his unceasing quest for stability and peace for Israel, Eban’s primary opposition often came from the homeland he was fighting for; no matter how many allies he gained abroad, the man never understood his own domestic politics well enough to be as effective in his pursuits as he hoped. The first examination of Eban in nearly forty years, this is a fascinating look at a life that still offers a valuable perspective on Israel today. “Siniver’s principal achievement is his artful documentation of the tension between Eban the intellectual and Eban the politician. Such lofty thoughts do not distract Mr. Siniver from listing the indiscretions and dishonesty to which Eban, in his politician’s guise, occasionally succumbed.” —The Wall Street Journal “Siniver’s levelheaded account looks at the history of Israel through the life of the country’s eloquent defender.” —TheNew York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)