Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Black Earth Review

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 About the Book 

In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first.  Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus all the more terrifying. 
      The Holocaust began in a dark but accessible place, in Hitler's mind, with the thought that the elimination of Jews would restore balance to the planet and allow Germans to win the resources they desperately needed.  Such a worldview could be realized only if Germany destroyed other states, so Hitler's aim was a colonial war in Europe itself.  In the zones of statelessness, almost all Jews died.  A few people, the righteous few, aided them, without support from institutions.  Much of the new research in this book is devoted to understanding these extraordinary individuals.  The almost insurmountable difficulties they faced only confirm the dangers of state destruction and ecological panic.  These men and women should be emulated, but in similar circumstances few of us would do so. 
      By overlooking the lessons of the Holocaust, Snyder concludes, we have misunderstood modernity and endangered the future.  The early twenty-first century is coming to resemble the early twentieth, as growing preoccupations with food and water accompany ideological challenges to global order.  Our world is closer to Hitler's than we like to admit, and saving it requires us to see the Holocaust as it was -- and ourselves as we are.  Groundbreaking, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Black Earth reveals a Holocaust that is not only history but warning. (Goodreads)



My Thoughts

This is quite the book. I was surprised at how much info is packed into this book. I like the perspective on Hitler and the little known facts about that time. I liked reading about the parts before the war and how the world seemed to be. I also think this book takes the common ideas that we seem to have read before and add more facts about the Jews, the concentration camps, and all of the people involved in that time. I also think it's important that it's not just a history that is forgotten on not realized. As things change over time, it's important that our children and their children know what happened. 
This book is in depth and if you aren't interested or don't like history this book will be difficult for you to read.
"I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review."

















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