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Walking Since Daybreak : A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century
Walking Since Daybreak A Story of Eastern Europe World War II and the Heart of Our Century Author:Modris Eksteins 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 Germ... more »ans, 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.« less