An immensely interesting, intelligent study of the failure of Weimar democracy, the Limits of Reason deftly captures the tragic nature of the period. With all the naivete of Don Quixote tilting at windmills, much of the German democratic press placed an inordinate faith in the power of free speech to make Germany a more open and just society. Unfortunately, as the author ably argues, most miscalculated the impact that so much economic and political disorientation would have on the country's fledgling democratic institutions. This book deserves a wide readership.

If you want to understand how World War I forever changed the psyche of the western world, get this book. Eksteins explains how the Germans associated the war with "liberation and freedom", and how that view differed from the English or French viewpoint. The book reads more like a novel than a history book, because it is admittedly a subjective viewpoint. But this is one of the points of the book: that since WWI there can no longer be an objective view. While the book is short on details about the war itself, it is rich in detail about the intellectual mindset of the time. He takes up where Paul Fussel, in his book The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Mind, leaves off. It's a very entertaining read, but is more likely to appeal to the intellectual historian or the ordinary person interested in history than war buffs. Highly recommended, but not for everyone.

Modris Eksteins "Rites of Spring" is already considered a classic by many after only slightly more than a decade in print. It's a daring *cultural* history of World War I; Eksteins' controversial thesis is that modernism caused the war. Usually the Great War is seen as the last gasp of old Europe and the sentimental Victorian age, and modernist angst was ushered in by the psychological impact of the bloodbath. Eksteins demonstrates that the savagery was in the air beforehand--the horrors were well underway in the minds of European artists and intellectuals before the first shot was fired. The title comes from Stravinsky, of course, who was one of those artists who glorified the idea of purgation through violence (they were playing with fire). The concept reached its logical conclusion with Joseph Goebbels' proclamation that war was "spring without end!" Eksteins writes in a cool but passionate style that is unusually compelling. This is a must read for history buffs and anyone who wants to know why the last century was a slaughterhouse.

I'm no expert on war history, but from reading this book I had a real vicarious "in the trenches" experience of World War I which was frankly quite fascinating and shocking at the same time. Modris Eksteins successfully takes the reader through the twilight of the growing pains of modernity, and we get a real sense of how much innocence was lost and what sort of brave new world was ushered in under the modern war machinery. Eksteins should be applauded for his ability to show both the political situation and individual citizen's attitudes towards the war, both in and off the frontlines. The losses of attrition recounted here are redolent of the French attempt to deter Bismark in 1870-1871; cold, brutal winters, large numbers of casualties, and patriotism facing a wall of death. Don't let one or two negative reviews about Rites of Spring mislead you- this book takes you into the trenches like you are really there. This is superb historical psychology and can help us all to understand the roots of the violent modern theatre and the existential disenfranchisement of our humanity.

This book, written by a well known Canadian historian, is an attempt to gain perspective on some of the horrors of the 20th century through a combination of family memoir and history. The author, a specialist on modern European history, is also an emigre from Latvia whose family escaped to Canada in the aftermath of the Second World War. Eksteins uses his family history and the history of Latvia as a way of capturing many of the horrible events of the 20th century. The disasters of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the triumph of the Soviet State, the German invasion of Russia, the bombings of German cities, and the sufferings of post-war refugees were all experienced personally by Eksteins and his family. Eksteins artfully interleaves the story of his family, the history of Latvia, and the larger history of 20th century Europe into a portrait of the disintegration of 19th century European life. The structure of the book is that the vignettes that comprise the narrative proceed both towards and away from the psychic epicenter of the book, the year 1945, when much of Europe was rubble. This book appears to have begun as a conventional attempt to describe Europe in 1945. Eksteins apparently found this to be a difficult or impossible task. This is understandable; no such description is possible without an understanding the events leading to 1945, and a comprehensive description of these would be well beyond a single book. Eksteins appears to be troubled also by the fact that contemporary historical scholarship cannot extract meaning from the study of history. To paraphrase him, there can only be histories, not a single history. I suspect he also found it difficult to contemplate the truly awful events discussed in this book. At one point, he writes that 1945 is not a triumph but a problem. This is a clear and valid attack on the facile triumphalism exhibited by a lot of discussion about the Second World War. Still, one wonders if this very well written book is too pessimistic. Eksteins' success in conveying the nature of the events he describes denies his pessimism over the so-called failure of history. While he is correct in criticizing triumphalist views of the World War Two, it is not entirely fair to make statements about 1945 being solely a problem. The fact is that it was also a triumph and the ambiguous beginning of new Europe.

The greatest "unreported" story of World War II was the massive geographical dislocation of millions of Eastern Europeans in the wake of the Soviet-German conflict. There has been little historiography on the subject available to a general readership in English. Modris Eksteins' account of his family's flight from Latvia to uncertain sanctuary in Canada is a splendid, heart-rending sign that should encourage more popular history accounts of this terrible tragedy.

The destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in early 1943 and the subsequent loss of men and armor at Kursk later that summer paved the way for the Red Army to retake all of the territory lost to the Germans since June, 1941, and to storm its way through Eastern Europe to overwhelm the Nazi regime at its source in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin. Millions of ethnic Germans, Balts, Poles and other civilian populations suffered terribly as the front lines drew back into their home territories. The Russians allowed their soldiers free reign to terrorize these civilians. Rape, theft and murder were inevitable companions that trailed in the wake of the Red Army's passage through Eastern Europe. Millions of civilians fled their homes in the dead of winter in 1944-45 to escape the dread Communist whirlwind.

Modris Eksteins wasn't old enough in 1945 to remember his family's flight from Latvia, but his talents as a historian and writer have reconstructed those terrible days intact. Eksteins uses the memories of his mother and older sister, as well as his father's diaries and official records in countries involved in the Soviet-German conflict, to piece together the history of one family's flight into diaspora. Even those lucky enough to find their way into Displaced Persons (DPs) camps in western Germany faced long waits for admission to countries that would take them. Eksteins vividly conveys the plight of DPs, an unwanted reminder to Germans of their own complicity in the worst crimes in human history and a barely-tolerated marginal presence in a postwar Canada still so Anglicized that foreigners were automatically scorned and suspect.

Gunther Grass has published a novel dealing with the East Prussian diaspora, a work that has opened up a tremendous flood of remembrance and pain in Germany. Until Grass's novel is translated and released in English, Modris Eksteins holds center court on the emotional tragedy that mass dislocation inflicted on its sufferers. It is time the voices of these people were heard.

"The girl with the flaxen hair. Beautiful she was, everyone said. Temperamental and strong-willed, too. And in the next breath they mentioned her hair, long and blond. Everyone noticed her hair."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Perhaps one can imagine what life was like during World War II. Perhaps one can imagine the horrors faced by many people during this time. But is imagining really good enough? Can one really know what happened during these times? One of the better ways to do this is to read Walking Since Daybreak by Modris Eksteins.

Walking Since Daybreak gives the reader a clear, and accurate picture of the trials that men, women, and children that lived in the Baltic regions faced. It tells of Latvia's history, how Latvia came under Russian control, how it broke free from communism, how it became the country it is today. It also tells the story of one man, and the author of the book, Modris Eksteins, and his family. How his family escaped from Latvia, and how they managed to get to Canada is a very profound and deeply intriguing tale.

Perhaps the best example of the human's violent attitude toward other humans is World War II. Its immense cataclysm has no precedent in human history: 28 million Russians perished, 10 million Germans, six million Jews, and several hundred thousand English, French, Americans, and Canadians. During the war, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia - all Baltic republics - were devastated - however, many of those who braved the voyage across Europe were rewarded with entrance into Canada and the United States, where they still continue to live today.

"Buttons. A handful of them. The small suitcase, when it was returned in May 1941, contained his pullover, boots, and those buttons."
- Walking Since Daybreak

They are the buttons of Arturs Vajeiks, one of Eksteins' relatives. Before his family received the suitcase, they had hopes that he had been deported, to the Russian Tundra.

"The prison had been so warm, they [Arturs' family] told themselves, that he hadn't needed his pullover or boots. But the buttons betrayed the hope."
- Walking Since Daybreak

For a long time, Arturs Vajeiks wasn't even an official statistic. His family did not know where his body lay. When he was taken away on February 19, 1941, he didn't die - he disappeared. On that day, Arturs was planning to take a load of timber to the mill, for cutting. Members of the railroad police, an auxiliary force, came for him. The charges against him were that he had "belonged to a counterrevolutionary organization, and stashed weapons illegally." The weapons charge was the most serious.

"When Latvia regained its independence in 1991, a goddaughter of Arturs discovered some information: On February 11, 1942, almost a year after his arrest, he had been found guilty under the criminal statutes of the Soviet Union and sentenced to death."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Unfortunately, this happened often during the war, and after it. A family member would simply disappear without a trace. Then, after Latvia regained its independence, the family would receive information concerning their beloved family member.

"In August 1995, the Republic of Latvia 'rehabilitated' Arturs Vajeiks."
- Walking Since Daybreak

Walking Since Daybreak is made up of many stories of Eksteins' family members, such as the one above. It also includes information about significant battles that took place during World War II in the Baltic area, and it tells the tale of how Latvia regained its independence. Because it is not a work of fiction, there is no discernable plot, but rather a collection of real-life stories, collected by Modris Eksteins, and published in this book.

It is due to the fact that no book is complete without a beginning, middle, and end, that this book flows the way it does. Modris Eksteins has taken a collection of stories from World War II, and compiled them in such a way that they are extremely intriguing to anyone who may come across them. The stories fit together perfectly. Walking Since Daybreak holds the reader's attention just as well as any work of fiction.

Although the story of World War II is a sad one, one must remember that lives were changed, sometimes for the better, because of it. Many people living here now would not be alive if WWII had not occurred. Many people would not be living in the conditions they are now, if WWII had not occurred. However many somber stories there are, there are always some happy endings.

"For regret and tears there was no time, no point. Someone once said that war poetry was the love poetry of our age. The girl with the flaxen hair would surely agree."
- Walking Since Daybreak