Recommend some books for me

paying3tuitions
Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:46:44 +0000

I haven’t read it, but “The Greatest Generation” by Tom Brokaw became a fast bestseller. It describes the era of his father, and the ethic of young men and women in the U.S. during Depression and WWII. It probably relates to your great-grandparent’s generation. It is a big contrast to the economics after WWII. There was more collective (as compared to competitive) grassroots solutions to problems than today. If you can understand the relationship between war, economics, manufacturing defense industries and how famiilies responded…then compare that to the post-WWII more materialist society we see today, you pretty much have a good handle on the 20th century, which is the backdrop to your own times.

You have a fantastic base of knowledge in Holocaust studies by now. There are ways to move onward with it, too, so you don’t keep reading tragedies.
There is a field in Religion departments called post-Holocaust theology that my cousin pursues at Syracuse U. His book is called “(God) After Auschwitz.” The parenthesis are part of the title, indicated the difficulty of having faith after such a human tragedy, and yet some did, so HOW did they do it? His is a very scholarly academic book, not an easy-read even in terms of language; SAT’s north of V-700 only should attempt it (and I told him…) ;)

You might also study on the 'Net the kinds of event programming going on at Holocaust Studies programs (there’s one where my S attends at Chapman U, for example, but many around the country) to see the topics they include that seek to express hope, courage, rescue and bravery in all kinds of arenas today.

You obviously got the message there, that it’s a tragedy we want to never happen again. It will inform your thinking forever, making you alert to racism, developing hatreds, and the causes of other oppressed people around the globe. But it is the most depressing reading. My H read everything written on it in English for his rabbinic thesis in the l970’s and that was only 1,000 books. Piece of cake then. Maybe because it’s not 10 million tragedies but 1 tragedy, 10 million times; each a different and unique story.

Off my soapbox; I simply wanted to indicate you can take your base of knowledge and move in several directions. That’s why “The Greatest Generation” came to mind; what were the Americans doing during those years? Had we not entered WWII, I’m sure we’d all be speaking German today and I wouldn’t have been born.

Anyways, to carry your thread forward (some glance only at the last posting)…

This poster is NOT looking for more Holocaust books; he’s read a-plenty! He seeks books on economics, business, presidential candidates…something to lift his head out of math/science studies!