I have just started A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad by Robert S. Wistrich. It is close to 1000 pages and heavy going. The subject matter is painful and important, the book is unflinching and in depth.
For an excellent review, take a look at It Will Not Go Away, by Jeffrey Herf, which includes this caveat pertaining to the modern iteration of anti-Semitism:
When Hitler made his famous threat to exterminate Europe’s Jews in 1939, many Western political observers did not believe he meant what he said. It was too incredible and without precedent. No political leader before had so bluntly and publicly announced his intention to engage in mass murder. And so the disgust that greeted Hitler was mixed with disbelief. But the leaders of our own time do not have the excuse of incredulity. As much as any historian can, Robert Wistrich has documented the fact that radical anti-Semitism is in earnest, that its geographic and cultural center of gravity has shifted, and that it has again become a factor in world politics. The advocates of this disgusting doctrine have the power from which to make good on their threats.
This morning I received a copy of Senator's Son, from the author, Luke Larson, a USMC veteran of the Iraq War.
I had planned on making some preparatory comments, but Mark Safranski beat me to it (and has some interesting remarks about the book in its particulars and its place in a larger transformation taking place in our zeitgeist.)
Just received a review copy of new author Luke Larson’s novel Senator’s Son. I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of works of fiction that I have reviewed at ZP, but two things caught my attention about Senator’s Son:
First, the novel is historical realism with a theme of COIN. Secondly, the author Luke Larson is a decorated Marine officer with two tours in Iraq under his belt. Flipping the pages reveals a gritty, sometimes humorous, staccato writing style and military/strategy/policy issues that are discussed here, or at SWJ or Abu Muqawama come to life through the eyes of still learning practitioners. I’m looking forward to reading Senator’s Son and reviewing it in full in late February or early March ( need to finish Carr’s Inside Cyber Warfare first).
Setting aside the book itself, something else occurred to me - that we have reached the point where the war is now appearing not as news, but as literature; Iraq and Afghanistan are proving to be culturally transformative wars for America in ways that the Gulf War or the Korean War were not.
Read the entire post; it is thought provoking.
Like Mark, I have reviewed only a handful of books at SW; I am looking forward to reading and reviewing Luke Larson's first novel in the next few weeks.
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