The author of The Closed Circle , the bestselling account of Arab society and politics, relates the fall of the Soviet empire as experienced from the inside. Based on firsthand accounts from party leaders, decision-makers, and first secretaries of the republics and satellites, this dramatic narrative examines why the crumbling of Communism occurred so peacefully, how much was accidental and how much planned, and what Gorbachev's motivations might have been. ".fabulous, absolutely indispensable."-- Literary Review .

The sudden and almost bloodless demise of the Soviet Union - and with it, communism - caught everyone by surprise, from the KGB and the Red Army to Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and the dissidents at home and in the satellite states. In the first full-scale account of this mysterious transformation, historian and journalist David Pryce-Jones is able to provide answers to the crucial questions: Why did Gorbachev not shoot his way out of the crisis in classic Soviet style, as former leaders had done in Hungary and Czechoslovakia? How did an unlikely alliance of nationalist actors, idealistic poets, and political priests unseat the ruling despots of Warsaw, Bucharest, East Berlin, and Prague? What role did the West really play in all this? And what do these remarkable events presage for Russia's future? The result is a vivid account of the Soviet empire's fall, as experienced from the inside - and at the top. Uncompromising in its accuracy and keen in its insight, The Strange Death of the Soviet Empire is the definitive account of one of history's greatest anticlimaxes.

Pp. 75-87 describe the first Vichy and Nazi anti-Jewish administrative measures in Paris and the establishment of the first institutions which dealt with the "Jewish question". Ch. 8 (pp. 136-147), "Pitchipoi", relates the Nazi and Vichy anti-Jewish policies: introduction of the "Jewish star", the roundup of 16-17 July 1942, the deportation of Jews to camps, as well as antisemitic propaganda in Paris.

"Based on his own family history, David Pryce-Jones’s virtuosic novel tells the tale of the Ellingens, one of the richest and most powerful Jewish families in the Habsburg Empire. Gustav will ascend from the poverty and obscurity of an orphanage to the pinnacle of Viennese society, steering the family’s fortunes through defeat in the Great War, the inflation of Weimar, and the perils of Depression. His only child, Henriette, must cope with the challenges of innocence and wealth. But her only child, Jules, will face a far more terrible challenge in the rise of Nazism. The Afternoon Sun is a vivid portrait of four brilliant generations and their Europe by a peerless observer who knew them as few others could."--

Book by Pryce-Jones, David