5053 results for "Biography"

What a life! the autobiography of Pesach'ke Burstein, Yiddish matinee idol

Burstein, Pesach
Pesach Bursrein, an old trouper from the Yiddish theater, recalls dramas both onstage and off in this memoir, which he dictated to his wife, Lillian Lux Burstein. The Story of Burstein's successful stage career is played out against the background of political turmoil in Europe, vignettes of life in small towns and big cities, friendships and rivalries among theater folk, family life, emigration to the United States, and tours through Europe, South America, Israel, and South Africa. Every personal anecdote tells the larger history: theater history and also the history of the Yiddish communities who were his audiences. While Burstein is a legend in Yiddish cheater, he was little known outside that world until he was celebrated in Arnon Goldfinger's acclaimed documentary Der Komedia11t. This memoir provides the first window for English readers into the other side of Yiddish culture—the Yiddish burlesque, the traveling Yiddish theater, and the music hall. It will not only delight readers but also reveal a social and cultural history never before described in such detail. Burstein's life is the story of popular Yiddish theater in the first half of the century.
Syracuse University Press 2003-04-01 309 pages

Character is destiny: reflections on innovation & integrity from Volvo's longest serving CEO

Gyllenhammar, Pehr G.
Character is Destiny provides a rare and unique glimpse into Pehr Gyllenhammar's professional triumphs and failures; and his successful efforts to shape industry in Europe, most notably with his creation of the European Roundtable of Industrialists which revitalized Europe's infrastructure through projects like the France-England Channel Tunnel. Character is Destiny also provides a window into his friendships with some of the great luminaries of the world. It is equal parts history, politics, and Gyllenhammar's own personal philosophy--the foundational elements of his life have always been humanism, a fierce commitment to integrity and truth, and a deeply-rooted respect and admiration for the working class. The author of six previous books published in Sweden, for the first time Gyllenhammar has chosen to create an original English-language book in concert with an American editor/writer. The resulting work is directly relevant to the English-language reader and Character is Destiny offers his own wisdom as to what people must do if they hope to see a future in which global business and democracy will survive.
Morgan James Publishing 2020 197 pages

From the pain come the dream

Fireman, Paul
From the Pain Comes the Dream presents the inspirational stories of 72 recipients of this prestigious award. These men and women, poets, bakers, doctors, veterinary students, lawyers, monks, and children were inspired to take risks and stand up to hate, fear, oppression, and torture. Their stories kindle hope, courage, and determination in our collective battle against acts of inhumanity.
Umbrage 2003 176 pages

Sacco and Vanzetti: the anarchist background

Avrich, Paul
The Sacco-Vanzetti affair is the most famous and controversial case in American legal history. It divided the nation in the 1920s, and it has continued to arouse deep emotions, giving rise to an enormous literature. Few writers, however, have consulted anarchist sources for the wealth of information available there about the movement of which the defendants were a part. Now Paul Avrich, the preeminent American scholar of anarchism, looks at the case from this new and valuable perspective. This book treats a dramatic and hitherto neglected aspect of the cause célèbre that raised, according to Edmund Wilson, "almost every fundamental question of our political and social system."
Princeton University Press 1991 265 pages

Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film

Oliver Leaman
The Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film is a unique, one volume work which illuminates a fascinating variety of cinema which is little known outside its own area. The Encyclopedia is divided into nine chapters, each written by a leading scholar in the field. Each chapter covers the history and major issues of film within that area, as well as providing bibliographies of the leading films, directors and actors. The areas covered are: Central Asia, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, The Magreb, Palestine, Turkey. This Encyclopedia will be an invaluable reference tool for students and scholars of Film and Media Studies. It contains more than 60 black and white photographs of featured films, includes references and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, and the volume concludes with comprehensive name, film and general indexes.
Routledge 2001 607 pages

Together

Appleton, Nicole
The story of two sisters who landed on Planet Pop and how they survived thanks to each other. Since they first hit the charts in 1997 with the All Saints, the Appletons have lived, loved and squabbled in the full glare of the tabloids. Now they discuss the tremendous highs and lows they have experienced - and talk openly about the men in their lives. Brave and honest, they make no attempt to hide their mistakes.
Michael Joseph 2002 293 pages

On the border

Warschawski, Michel
On the Border chronicles a radical political education in a time and place charged with idealism and danger. A Polish Frenchman and a rabbi's son, Michel Warschawski left for Israel at the age of sixteen to to study the Talmud, and eventually became one of the most renowned figures of the Israeli left. Warschawski's involvement in radical politics led to inspiring alliances with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Marxists. Yet as the border lines hardened, he became targeted by the Shin Bet, Israel's notorious intelligence agents. Finally arrested, incarcerated and interrogated for 20 days, Michel gives his readers an insider's view of the psychological and political pressures that Shin Bet brought to bear, even on Jews, and never lets you forget the severity of treatment that his Palestinian colleagues faced. In touch with the Jewish diaspora, and inspired by a socialism without borders, the book mixes sharp analysis of the ongoing conflict with deep personal insight into the events of the last three decades. The lessons he draws from his experience on the border between Israel and Palestine should be instructive for all the places where cultures rub against each other for better and worse. Warschawski's perspective offers hope for the rich cultural and political exchange that these places offer their inhabitants, and hope for his adopted land.
Pluto Press 2005 228 pages

Reasons to be cheerful

Steel, Mark
The memoirs of 25 years of political activism, albeit minor and mostly unsuccessful! Deciding to dedicated his life to eradicating injustice Mark Steel tried to persuade his mates to change their sexist attitudes - only to be called a poof; innocently wandered into the heat of battle during the Brixton riots in 1981 - to be wrongfully arrested for stealing shoes; hidden striking steel workers to defeat Thatcher's union laws; and in the GLA elections of May 2000 he received 1823 votes for the London Socialist Alliance.
Scribner 2002 288 pages

Tony Blair: the man behind the smile

Abse, Leo
In this hard-hitting and explosive book, reforming parliamentarian Leo Abse presents a remarkable analysis of Tony Blair. Originally published in 1996 to critical acclaim and a storm of controversy, the author has completely revised and updated it to scrutinise Blair's premiership years. In a powerfully penetrating and forthright investigation of Blair's pysche. Abse deploys his psychoanalytical scholarship to consider the forces and influences that have driven Blair. He examines the house of secrets in which Blair was reared, where the promiscuous grandmother forever cast a shadow, where the illegitimate stricken father -- authoritative, ambitious and politically unstable -- dominated the household, and where death unfairly invaded the family domain. Abse goes on to show how the traumatic events of Blair's childhood left him a loner, an estranged man who sought to resolve his private dilemmas in rock music and religion and then, belatedly, in politics.
Robson Books/Parkwest 2002 252 pages

Just watch me: remembering Pierre Trudeau

Zolf, Larry
How can we remember Pierre Trudeau? Let Zolf count the ways.First he was the wisest (or the wiliest?) of the Wise Men, the Philosopher King with the potion of "Reason Above Passion." Then he was the star of Trudeaumania, "our permanent Expo": suddenly Canada had a prime minister who could surf, shrug, frug, flip and flirt. In 1970 there was the macho Trudeau of War Measures, daring a nation of pantywaists to "Just Watch Me." More roles followed. With so many masks, the fifteenth prime minister bedazzled the people for sixteen years, when suddenly they awoke to ask, "What did he do to us?"Written as Trudeau retired from active politics, illustrated with dozens of photographs chronicling his career, Just Watch Me is a fascinating record of the career of one of Canada's most enigmatic leaders.
J. Lorimer 1984 97 pages