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Lyle Creelman
by Susan E. Armstrong-ReidThis intriguing scholarly biography examines the important contributions of Canada's foremost international nurse, Lyle Creelman. Creelman parlayed her experience as a community health nurse in British Columbia into significant international appointments with two organizations undertaking massive responsibility for health tasks in the post-war period - first, as chief nurse of the British Zone of Occupied Germany with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and, from 1954 to 1968, the Chief Nursing Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO).In telling Creelman's fascinating story, Susan Armstrong-Reid helps readers learn about the transformation of the nursing profession and global health governance in the twentieth century. This story challenges the prevailing portrait of expatriate nurses during this period as agents of Western cultural imperialism. Lyle Creelman: The Frontiers of Global Nursing not only recasts the broader historical narrative of nursing's legacy to global health, but contextualizes its continuing importance for approaching health care in the twenty-first-century.
Lynch Files: The Forgotten Saga of Victims of Hate Crime
by Ziya Us SalamMohammed Akhlaq and Rakbar lynched in the name of cow protection. Chimma, a Dalit, lynched by the mob for entering a Hindu temple. In the recent years, the cases of mob lynching of Muslims and Dalits have increased to an alarming extent. These cases are discarded and forgotten without any justice served to the victims. The emergence of mobocracy from the roots of Hindutva and gau rakshaks has put India’s secularity and democratic constitution to test. Lynch Files pieces together the tragic stories of the people at the receiving end of mob violence and looks inside the mind of the lynchers who flout laws with impunity. Further, the book discusses the Supreme Court judgement against lynching and tries to restore faith in the court’s capacity to curb this violence.
Lynching and Local Justice: Legitimacy And Accountability In Weak States (Elements in Political Economy)
by Danielle F. Jung Dara Kay CohenWhat are the social and political consequences of poor state governance and low state legitimacy? Under what conditions does lynching – lethal, extralegal group violence to punish offenses to the community – become an acceptable practice? We argue lynching emerges when neither the state nor its challengers have a monopoly over legitimate authority. When authority is contested or ambiguous, mass punishment for transgressions can emerge that is public, brutal, and requires broad participation. Using new cross-national data, we demonstrate lynching is a persistent problem in dozens of countries over the last four decades. Drawing on original survey and interview data from Haiti and South Africa, we show how lynching emerges and becomes accepted. Specifically, support for lynching most likely occurs in one of three conditions: when states fail to provide governance, when non-state actors provide social services, or when neighbors must rely on self-help.
Lynching: Violence, Rhetoric, and American Identity (Race, Rhetoric, and Media Series)
by Ersula J. OreWinner of the 2020 Rhetoric Society of America Book AwardWhile victims of antebellum lynchings were typically white men, postbellum lynchings became more frequent and more intense, with the victims more often black. After Reconstruction, lynchings exhibited and embodied links between violent collective action, American civic identity, and the making of the nation.Ersula J. Ore investigates lynching as a racialized practice of civic engagement, in effect an argument against black inclusion within the changing nation. Ore scrutinizes the civic roots of lynching, the relationship between lynching and white constitutionalism, and contemporary manifestations of lynching discourse and logic today. From the 1880s onward, lynchings, she finds, manifested a violent form of symbolic action that called a national public into existence, denoted citizenship, and upheld political community.Grounded in Ida B. Wells’s summation of lynching as a social contract among whites to maintain a racial order, at its core, Ore’s book speaks to racialized violence as a mode of civic engagement. Since violence enacts an argument about citizenship, Ore construes lynching and its expressions as part and parcel of America’s rhetorical tradition and political legacy.Drawing upon newspapers, official records, and memoirs, as well as critical race theory, Ore outlines the connections between what was said and written, the material practices of lynching in the past, and the forms these rhetorics and practices assume now. In doing so, she demonstrates how lynching functioned as a strategy interwoven with the formation of America’s national identity and with the nation’s need to continually restrict and redefine that identity. In addition, Ore ties black resistance to lynching, the acclaimed exhibit Without Sanctuary, recent police brutality, effigies of Barack Obama, and the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Lynd Ward’s Wordless Novels, 1929-1937: Visual Narrative, Cultural Politics, Homoeroticism (Routledge Research in American Literature and Culture)
by Grant F. ScottThis book offers the first multidisciplinary analysis of the "wordless novels" of American woodcut artist and illustrator Lynd Ward (1905-1985), who has been enormously influential in the development of the contemporary graphic novel. The study examines his six pictorial novels, each part of an evolving experiment in a new form of visual narrative that offers a keen intervention in the cultural and sexual politics of the 1930s. The novels form a discrete group – much like Beethoven’s piano sonatas or Keats’s great odes – in which Ward evolves a unique modernist style (cinematic, expressionist, futurist, realist, documentary) and grapples with significant cultural and political ideas in a moment when the American experiment and capitalism itself hung in the balance. In testing the limits of a new narrative form, Ward’s novels require a versatile critical framework as sensitive to German Expressionism and Weimar cinema as to labor politics and the new energies of proletarian homosexuality.
Lyndon B. Johnson (The American Presidents Series)
by Arthur M. Schlesinger Charles PetersPeters, a keen observer of Washington politics for more than five decades, shares his insider knowledge and experiences to tell the story of Johnson's presidency as the tale of an immensely talented politician driven by ambition and desire.
Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism: A Brief Biography With Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture )
by Bruce J. SchulmanWhether admired or reviled, Lyndon B. Johnson and his tumultuous administration embodied the principles and contradictions of his era. Taking advantage of newly released evidence, this second edition incorporates a selection of fresh documents, including transcripts of Johnson's phone conversations and conservative reactions to his leadership, to examine the issues and controversies that grew out of Johnson's presidency and have renewed importance today. The voices of Johnson, his aides, his opponents, and his interpreters address the topics of affirmative action, the United States' role in world affairs, civil rights, Vietnam, the Great Society, and the fate of liberal reform. Additional photographs of Johnson in action complement Bruce J. Schulman's rich biographical narrative, and a chronology, an updated bibliographical essay, and new questions for consideration provide pedagogical support.
Lyndon B. Johnson and the Politics of Arms Sales to Israel: In the Shadow of the Hawk (Israeli History, Politics And Society Ser.)
by Abraham Ben-ZviLyndon B. Johnson and the Politics of Arms Sales to Israel seeks to reconstruct and elucidate the processes behind the decisions made by the Johnson Administration during the years 1965-68 to sell Israel M-48 tanks, A-4 Skyhawk planes and F-4 Phantom planes. This examination is based on a distinction between three factions which competed for influe
Lyndon B. Johnson and the Transformation of American Politics (Library of American Biography Series)
by John BullionThis newest edition to the Library of American Biography Series by John L. Bullion introduces students to the dynamic and turbulent life and legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson. <P><P>Johnson navigated the country through some of the most challenging issues of the 20th century. This volume offers a close look at not only how Johnson handled the issues of civil rights, segregation, Vietnam, and an unruly economy, but also demonstrates how these same issues and events wore away Johnson’s once robust idealism. <P><P>The titles in the Library of American Biography Series make ideal supplements for American History Survey courses or other courses in American history where figures in history are explored. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each interpretative biography in this series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. At the same time, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Thirty-sixth President Of The United States
by Lucille Falkof Richard G. YoungTraces the childhood, education, employment, and political career of the thirty-sixth president of the United States.
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream: The Most Revealing Portrait Of A President And Presidential Power Ever Written
by Doris Kearns GoodwinAn engrossing biography of President Lyndon Johnson from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals Hailed by the New York Times as "the most penetrating, fascinating political biography I have ever read," Doris Kearns Goodwin's extraordinary and insightful book draws from meticulous research in addition to the author's time spent working at the White House from 1967 to 1969. After Lyndon Johnson's term ended, Goodwin remained his confidante and assisted in the preparation of his memoir. In Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream she traces the 36th president's life from childhood to his early days in politics, and from his leadership of the Senate to his presidency, analyzing his dramatic years in the White House, including both his historic domestic triumphs and his failures in Vietnam. Drawn from personal anecdotes and candid conversation with Johnson, Goodwin paints a rich and complicated portrait of one of our nation's most compelling politicians.
Lyndon: An Oral Biography
by Merle MillerThe bestselling author of Plain Speaking crafts a candid portrait of one of the most complex, fascinating, difficult, and colorful American presidents. From his birth in 1908 to his death in 1973, the story of Lyndon B. Johnson is told without sparing his personal excesses and contentious public image—while also highlighting the strength of his greatest accomplishments in Washington. Interlaced with interviews from Lady Bird Johnson, John Kenneth Galbraith, J. William Fulbright, Larry O&’Brien, Hubert H. Humphrey, and hundreds of others, Miller provides an extensive and objective image of the life of LBJ. &“No secret remains. This is Lyndon Johnson true, lunging through life, pouring &‘every ounce of his energy&’ into whatever he did, ranting, raving, shouting, &‘screaming at the universe,&’ flogging system, staff and self to achieve what others pronounced unachievable . . . Miller allows his posse of turncoats—336 in all, myself among them—to lead him to the Johnson few ever knew: at his best, magnificent; at his worst, outrageous.&” —Horace Busby, The Washington Post &“The domestic triumphs and the Johnson style come across like the Fourth of July . . . page-by-page, this is the low-down up to the Presidency—and one long book that never flags.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Lynton Keith Caldwell: An Environmental Visionary and the National Environmental Policy Act
by Wendy Read Wertz“A solid overview of both Caldwell’s contributions and the development of the environmental movement in the US . . . . Recommended.” —ChoiceThis is the story of a visionary leader, Lynton Keith Caldwell, who in the early 1960s introduced the study of the environment and environmental policy at a time when such areas of expertise did not exist. Caldwell was a principal architect of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and is recognized as the “inventor” of the Act’s important environmental impact statement provisions, now emulated around the world. For the next three decades, Caldwell played a leading role in establishing ethics-based environmental policy and administration as major areas of inquiry in the United States and around the world. Through his tireless global travels, writing, and lectures, and his work with the US Senate, the IUCN, UN, and UNESCO, Caldwell became recognized for his contributions to environmental ethics and the development of strong environmental planning and policy. This engrossing biography is based on interviews the author conducted with Caldwell and on unrestricted access to his memorabilia, photos, and records.“Deeply insightful . . . The field of environmental policy is richer for this addition. —H-Net Reviews
Lyric Eye: The Poetics of Twentieth-Century Surveillance
by Tyne Daile SumnerLyric Eye: The Poetics of Twentieth-Century Surveillance presents the first detailed study of the relationship between poetry and surveillance. It critically examines the close connection between American lyric poetry and a burgeoning U.S. state surveillance apparatus from 1920 to the 1960s. The book explores the myriad ways that poets—Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, W.H. Auden, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Gertrude Stein, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg and others—explored a developing and fraught environment in which the growing power of American investigative agencies, such as the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, imposed new pressures on cultural discourse and personal identity. In analysing twentieth-century American poetry and its various ideas about "the self," Lyric Eye demonstrates the extent to which poetry and surveillance employ similar styles of information gathering such as observation, overhearing, imitation, abstraction, repurposing of language, subversion, fragmentation and symbolism. Ground-breaking and prescient, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literature, politics, surveillance and intelligence studies, and digital humanities.
Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics
by Clare CavanaghLyric Poetry and Modern Politics explores the intersection of poetry, national life, and national identity in Poland and Russia, from 1917 to the present. As a corrective to recent trends in criticism, acclaimed translator and critic Clare Cavanagh demonstrates how the practice of the personal lyric in totalitarian states such as Russia and Poland did not represent an escapist tendency; rather it reverberated as a bold political statement and at times a dangerous act. Cavanagh also provides a comparative study of modern poetry from the perspective of the eastern and western sides of the Iron Curtain. Among the poets discussed are Blok, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Yeats, Whitman, Frost, Szymborska, Zagajewski, and Milosz; close readings of individual poems are included, some translated for the first time. Cavanagh examines these poets and their work as a challenge to Western postmodernist theories, thus offering new perspectives on twentieth-century lyric poetry.
Lyrical Individualism: Selected Writings on Henri Bergson and Anarchism (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)
by Andre ColomerIn the early twentieth century, André Colomer was perhaps the best-known figure in the anarchist movement. A poet, philosopher, activist, and public speaker, he was enmeshed in the Parisian political and artistic scene at a time of political and cultural revolution. Amid the avant-garde explosions of Cubism, futurism, and surrealism and the ferment of radical politics on left and right, Colomer became anarchism’s leading advocate. He galvanized the Parisian public through his agitational writing and organizing, as well as his involvement in a sensational murder case, while developing a distinctive philosophical account of anarchist individualism. Yet Colomer died in obscurity in Moscow, abandoned by his friends and comrades, and is scarcely known in the English-speaking world today.Lyrical Individualism presents a selection of Colomer’s crucial writings, with a focus on anarchist theory and the philosophy of Henri Bergson. It reveals the richness of Colomer’s philosophical work, particularly his creative engagement with Bergson, Max Stirner, and Friedrich Nietzsche to forge a novel anarchist ideology. Colomer’s writings not only offer valuable insights into interwar anarchism, they also present a distinctive philosophical vision that in many ways anticipates theories and debates animating radical political movements today. This book also showcases his acerbic and pugnacious political commentary on the turbulent events of the 1910s and 1920s. The first translation and publication of Colomer’s work since his untimely death in 1931, Lyrical Individualism allows a range of readers to discover this vital thinker.
Lyrical Strains: Liberalism and Women's Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America
by Elissa ZellingerIn this book, Elissa Zellinger analyzes both political philosophy and poetic theory in order to chronicle the consolidation of the modern lyric and the liberal subject across the long nineteenth century. In the nineteenth-century United States, both liberalism and lyric sought self-definition by practicing techniques of exclusion. Liberalism was a political philosophy whose supposed universals were limited to white men and created by omitting women, the enslaved, and Native peoples. The conventions of poetic reception only redoubled the sense that liberal selfhood defined its boundaries by refusing raced and gendered others. Yet Zellinger argues that it is precisely the poetics of the excluded that offer insights into the dynamic processes that came to form the modern liberal and lyric subjects. She examines poets—Frances Sargent Osgood, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and E. Pauline Johnson—whose work uses lyric practices to contest the very assumptions about selfhood responsible for denying them the political and social freedoms enjoyed by full liberal subjects. In its consideration of politics and poetics, this project offers a new approach to genre and gender that will help shape the field of nineteenth-century American literary studies.
Lyrische Agonistik: Das Politische in Gedichten der Gegenwart (Lyrikforschung. Neue Arbeiten zur Theorie und Geschichte der Lyrik #3)
by Christoph CoxAusgehend von der These, dass es sich bei der politischen Lyrik der Gegenwart vor allem um eine Lyrik des Politischen, eine lyrische Streitkultur handelt, wird in „Lyrische Agonistik. Das Politische in Gedichten der Gegenwart“ auf der Basis einer philosophischen ‚neue‘ Rhetorik und mit Rückbezug auf Ansätze der radikalen Demokratietheorie insbesondere von Chantal Mouffe und Ernesto Laclau eine neuartige rhetorische Methode zur Analyse des Politischen in der Lyrik der Gegenwart entwickelt. Grundlegend für diese Methode ist die von sophistischer Rhetoriktradition und radikaler Demokratietheorie geteilte Skepsis gegenüber allen epistemischen Letztbegründungsversuchen. Das Politische in der Lyrik der Gegenwart erweist sich im Kontext dieser beiden Bezugspunkte als die Zurückweisung fundamentaler Gründungversuche, die sich als diskursive Form der Verhandlung einer nur plausiblen, in ihrer Kontingenz stets angreifbaren Politik äußert. Ablesbar wird diese postfundamentalistische Wende in gegenwärtigen Gedichten anhand von rhetorischen Widersprüchen, die auf den unaufhebbaren konflikthaften Charakter des Politischen hindeuten, deren notwendige Gegenseite der ebenso rhetorisch ausgearbeitete Versuch ist, umstrittene Diskurse zugunsten einer nie letztbegründbaren Position zu hegemonisieren. Aufgezeigt wird das dem Politischen eigene Spiel aus Kontingenzerfahrung und Schließungsbemühungen anhand von drei disparaten Textbeispielen politischer Lyrik der letzten zehn Jahre: Tom Schulz’ „Die Maschinen sind volljährig“, Günter Grass’ „Was gesagt werden muss“ und Monika Rincks „was machen die frauen am sonntag?“.
Lágrimas de sal
by Lidia Tilotta Pietro BartoloLágrimas de sal es el conmovedor relato de la actual tragedia migratoria que se vive en las aguas del mediterráneo, pero es ante todo una historia de coraje, compromiso, dignidad y amor que no dejará a nadie indiferente. A los dieciséis años Pietro Bartolo salió de pesca con su padre en el pequeño barco cuyo trabajo diario llenaba los platos de unas pocas familias de Lampedusa. En un descuido, Pietro cayó al mar y estuvo a punto de morir ahogado; esa experiencia le marcó de por vida. Tras terminar los estudios de Medicina, decidió volver a la isla para ayudar a los inmigrantes que llegan a sus costas desafiando ese mismo mar. Hoy lleva más de veinticinco años ejerciendo su trabajo: Bartolo es el médico que los acoge, los atiende, cuida de ellos, pero sobre todo, los escucha. Estas páginas son la narración de su historia a través de una serie de instantáneas que retratan casos reales de las mujeres, los hombres y los niñosque llegan a Lampedusa en las peores condiciones imaginables, huyendo de la guerra y del hambre; cruzando desiertos en viajes inhumanos, viendo morir a sus familiares o compañeros. Y a pesar de todo, no se dan por vencidos, deseosos de empezar una nueva vida en Europa, porque lo que dejan atrás es peor que cualquier escenario alternativo. Reseñas:«Con toda su humanidad, Bartolo te hace comprender la necesidad de saber dar acogida.»La Reppublica «Un nudo en el estómago.»The Guardian
Lázaro Cárdenas. Un mexicano del siglo XX
by Ricardo Pérez MontfortLa biografía definitiva sobre un hombre que transformó un país. El nombre Lázaro Cárdenas se convirtió en una alegoría. Es inevitable que al pronunciarlo se piense en la expropiación petrolera, la Revolución de 1910, la construcción del México moderno, la idea de soberanía y la noción misma de lo heroico. Pero esa metáfora encubre toda la complejidad de Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, un hombre de carne y hueso que tuvo una vida inaudita, trepidante y asombrosa, plena de sutilezas y claroscuros. En esta obra, Ricardo Pérez Montfort -uno de los mayores investigadores del expresidente- relata sin cortapisas la vida del michoacano, con brillante fluidez explica las motivaciones que lo guiaron y contextualiza las decisiones de quien tal vez sea uno de los políticos mexicanos más reconocidos pero más desconocidos, más alabados pero más envueltos en mitos. En este primer tomo de Lázaro Cárdenas. Un mexicano del siglo XX, se profundiza en los años de formación del general: su infancia y juventud, su participación en la Revolución mexicana, sus inicios en la política y su meteórico ascenso en los pasillos del poder: en resumen, los hechos que configuraron al hombre que cambiaría México.
Lázaro Cárdenas. Un mexicano del siglo XX (El hombre que cambió al país #Volumen 2)
by Ricardo Pérez MontfortLa biografía definitiva sobre un hombre que transformó un país. El nombre Lázaro Cárdenas se convirtió en una alegoría. Es inevitable que al pronunciarlo se piense en la expropiación petrolera, la Revolución de 1910, la construcción del México moderno, la idea de soberanía y la noción misma de lo heroico. Pero esa metáfora encubre toda la complejidad de Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, un hombre de carne y hueso que tuvo una vida inaudita, trepidante y asombrosa, plena de sutilezas y claroscuros. En esta obra, Ricardo Pérez Montfort -uno de los mayores investigadores del expresidente- relata sin cortapisas la vida del michoacano, con brillante fluidez explica las motivaciones que lo guiaron y contextualiza las decisiones de quien tal vez sea uno de los políticos mexicanos más reconocidos pero más desconocidos, más alabados pero más envueltos en mitos. En este primer tomo de Lázaro Cárdenas. Un mexicano del siglo XX, se profundiza en los años de formación del general: su infancia y juventud, su participación en la Revolución mexicana, sus inicios en la política y su meteórico ascenso en los pasillos del poder: en resumen, los hechos que configuraron al hombre que cambiaría México.
Lázaro Cárdenas: Un mexicano del siglo XX
by Ricardo Pérez MontfortLos años que definieron una vida y una idea de patria. En este segundo tomo de Lázaro Cárdenas. Un mexicano del siglo XX, se relata el periodo central en la vida del General: aquél que transformó nuestro país y lo catapultó a la historia. Los años de su sexenio (1934-1940) y de su encargo como secretario de la Defensa Nacional -durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, ni más ni menos- son analizados con una prosa rigurosa y ágil por Ricardo Pérez Montfort, quien desmonta mitos del michoacano, de la Expropiación Petrolera, de su visión de la política y de su existencia tras Los Pinos. Así, en este tomo II de la biografía más documentada de Cárdenas del Río se presentan las coordenadas imprescindibles para entender el México de hoy, sus luchas y contradicciones.
Lämna det sjunkande skeppet, en resa till ett ekonomiskt jihad
by Jo M. Sekimonyo Charlotta Zaar BöllFemtiofem nyanser av politisk ekonomi... Ekonomiska teoretiker har sedan starten för över 200 år sedan kämpat med frågan hur man fördelar rikedom, och dom har fortfarande inte kommit närmare en lösning. Författaren kritiserar inte bara kapitalismen, utan har äntligen lagt till ett nytt tankeväckande alternativ till det kannibalistiska systemet. Författarens okonventionella sätt att angripa problemen kommer att öka din hjärtfrekvens och göra dig illamående. I mitten av boken kan du finna dig själv famlande efter ett långt rep att hänga dig själv i, då du gett upp hoppet om mänskligheten... men gör inte det, för då missar du den spektakulära finalen. Denna bok är inte en ekonomisk liturgi. Författaren erbjuder ett tankeväckande botemedel mot global sociopolitisk ojämnlikhet; uppkomsten av ethosismen. Tara Casimir, Editor
Länderbericht zum Deutschen Freiwilligensurvey 2019 (Bürgergesellschaft und Demokratie)
by Everhard Holtmann Tobias Jaeck Odette WohllebenDieses Open-Access-Buch bringt die Daten des Deutschen Freiwilligensurveys 2019 für einen Vergleich der Bundesländer Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein und Thüringen zusammen. Der Freiwilligensurvey wurde 2019 zum fünften Mal im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ) durchgeführt. Die Ziele der vorliegenden Auswertung sind eine aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme des freiwilligen Engagements und weiterer Formen zivilgesellschaftlichen Handelns in den einzelnen Bundesländern sowie eine Darstellung zentraler Entwicklungen im Zeitverlauf seit 1999. Des Weiteren wurden erstmals landesspezifische Charakteristika und die individuellen Kontexte und Umfeldbedingungen von freiwilligen Engagement analysiert.
Léon Blum
by Pierre BirnbaumLéon Blum (1872–1950) was many things: a socialist and political activist, leader of the Popular Front; a dedicated statesman who served as France's prime minister three times; a hero who courageously opposed anti-Semitism, Nazi aggression, and the pro-German Vichy government; a passionate lover of women, art, and life. A tireless champion for workers’ rights, Blum dramatically changed French society by establishing the forty-hour work week, paid holidays, and collective bargaining on wage claims. He was also a proud Jew and Zionist, and a survivor who endured the horrors of Buchenwald and Dachau. Unlike previous biographies that downplay the significance of Blum’s Jewish heritage on his progressive politics, Pierre Birnbaum’s portrait depicts an extraordinary man whose political convictions were shaped and driven by his religious and cultural background. The author powerfully demonstrates how Blum’s Jewishness was central to his milieu and mission from his earliest entry into the political arena in reaction to the Dreyfus Affair, and how it sustained and motivated him throughout the remainder of his life. Birnbaum’s Léon Blum is a critical chapter in the larger history of Jews in France.