Description
Book SynopsisA figure of great intellectual power who ran the German state, however briefly, during one of its most tumultuous periods, and whose life was "the essence of German Jewish history."
Trade Review"In this remarkable biography, Shulamit Volkov offers a subtle analysis of Walther Rathenau's complex and often ambiguous personality. She describes admirably how Rathenau's always-reaffirmed Jewishness increasingly became a target for the antisemitic elites of Imperial Germany and, notwithstanding his outstanding services to Germany, an object of fanatical hatred for the extreme Right under Weimar, which led to his assassination. Shulamit Volkov's book is history at its best."—Saul Friedlander, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Nazi Germany and the Jews
-- Saul Friedlander
"Volkov’s scholarship illuminates many sides of Rathenau’s personality. Her discussion of Rathenau’s Jewishness is informed, often moving, and absorbing as both personal and social history."—A. J. Sherman, Associate Fellow, St. Antony’s College, Oxford
-- A. J. Sherman
"An illuminating, thoroughly researched and sympathetic account of this intriguing, enigmatic life."—Ian Brunskill,
Wall Street Journal -- Ian Brunskill * Wall Street Journal *
"Incisive and probing."—Martin Rubin,
Washington Times -- Martin Rubin * Washington Times *
"This is by far the best and most sophisticated life of Rathenau in English."—Richard J. Evans,
London Review of Books -- Richard J. Evans * London Review of Books *
"Concise and revelatory."—Sam Kerbel,
The Forward Arty Semite Blog -- Sam Kerbel * The Forward Arty Semite Blog *
