Streaming Video on Love In Black & White now available at Expandedbooks.com Most Americans regard the World War II period as belonging to the "greatest generation," but it was also a time when religious intolerance and racial violence flourished. Shamefully, it was commonplace to see signs that read "Whites Only" or "Jews Not Allowed." It is within this world that this compelling memoir is set. William Cohen, born in Bangor, Maine, was the eldest son of a Jewish father and a Protestant Irish mother. Janet Langhart, an African-American, was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana by her single parent mother, a Southern Baptist. The book draws fascinating parallels between the histories of two people from different regions, races, and religions, as both are witnesses to and targets of the social tensions of the day. Throughout Love in Black and White, readers accompany Bill and Janet in their struggle to overcome to the barriers of ethnic and racial bigotry and hatred. The stories are rich and profound. At times they are amusing. Other times, harrowing. Against impossible odds, Bill would be elected to serve his country as a U.S. Congressman and Senator, and Janet would become a prominent television personality, activist, and highly respected businesswoman and author. Opposites in so many ways―in color, faith and culture―seemingly a bundle of contradictions, they meet in 1974, become friends, and eventually fall in love. They decide to marry on Valentine's Day 1996 in the very place that once harbored some of the nation's most prominent racists-the U.S. Capitol. They receive the surprise of a lifetime when Bill is asked by President Bill Clinton to serve as the nation's 20th Secretary of Defense. It is a calling that proves to be life transforming for both him and Janet, as they lead, inspire and bring comfort to the men and women who defend our nation. It is at the Pentagon where they witness just how powerful our nation ca

This memoir moves through Cohen's life in the counterculture, discussing book collecting, the pleasures of browsing and the need for bookshops.

"The revealing memoir of one of Israeli's most respected statesmen. Moshe Arens is one of the last surviving members of the founding generation of Israelis. He is a political insider who has worked with every Israeli prime minister from Menachem Begin to Benjamin Netanyahu, serving in a variety of important positions, including foreign minister and defense minister. He has also enjoyed an exceptionally close life-long relationship with the United States: he attended high school in New York and colleges in Massachusetts and California, married an American, and served as Israel's ambassador to the United States. In this memoir, Arens recounts his early role in the birth of Israel and developing Israel's aerospace industry, followed by a long and distinguished political career that included service at the very top of Israel's government for the better part of three decades. Arens advocated relentlessly throughout his political career for his vision of an Israel strong enough to withstand all challenges in its volatile neighborhood. In Defense of Israel vividly recounts the many battles Arens fought in the political arena, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The latter included his strong opposition to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank--an action that led to the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. Anyone interested in Israel's place within the contemporary Middle East, including Israel's relationship with the United States, will find this memoir informative, even eye-opening, and often provocative."--

The Vienna Paradox is Marjorie Perloff's memoir of growing up in pre-World War II Vienna, her escape to America in 1938 with her upper-middle-class, highly cultured, and largely assimilated Jewish family, and her self-transformation from the German-speaking Gabriele Mintz to the English-speaking Marjorie--who also happened to be the granddaughter of Richard Schüller, the Austrian foreign minister under Chancellor Dollfuss and a special delegate to the League of Nations. Compelling as the story is, this is hardly a conventional memoir. Rather, it interweaves biographical anecdote and family history with speculations on the historical development of early 20th-century Vienna as it was experienced by her parents' generation, and how the loss of their "high" culture affected the lives of these cultivated refugees in a democratic United States that was, and remains, deeply suspicious of perceived "elitism." This is, in other words, an intellectual memoir, both elegant and heartfelt, by one of America's leading critics, a narrative in which literary and philosophical reference is as central as the personal.

A memoir by Judy Rebick, one of Canada's best-known feminists, including her time as a high-profile spokesperson for the pro-choice movement and as president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, as well as her struggle with depression and multiple personality disorder.

"In a world where everyone is inventing a self, curating a feed and performing a fantasy of life, what does it mean to be a person? In his grandly entertaining debut memoir, playwright David Adjmi explores how human beings create themselves, and how artists make their lives into art.."--Publisher's description.

A wry and beautifully observed memoir about coming of age in the era of conceptual art. Growing up in the suburbs—confused about his sexuality, about his consumer-oriented world, about the death of his older brother—Bernard Cooper falls in love with Pop art and sets off for the California Institute of the Arts, the center of the burgeoning field of conceptual art, in this beguiling memoir. The most famous, and infamous, artists of the time drift through the place, including Allan Kaprow and John Baldessari, not to mention the student who phones the Identi-Kit division of the Los Angeles Police Department and has them make a composite drawing of the Mona Lisa . My Avant-Garde Education is at once an artist's coming-of-age story and a personal chronicle of the era of conceptual art, from a writer "of uncommon subtlety and nuance" (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times ). It is a record of the wonders and follies of a certain era in art history, always aware that awakening to art is, for a young person, inseparable from awakening to the ever-shifting nature of the self.

This volume offers a fascinating, impressively detailed, account of the professional and personal life of a prominent historian of Latin America. It covers his youth, contacts with a young Leonard Bernstein, and his education at Boston Latin School and Harvard. He served in WWII, rising from private to master sergeant, ending up in a three-man military intelligence unit on Okinawa. There he held in his hands the first aerial photos of atomic-bombed Hiroshima, and was an eye witness to the surrender of Japanese holdouts. In rising from college instructor to department chair Potash recounts the conflicts and tensions that make up academic life. His two-year leave with the State Department was a career transforming experience, turning him eventually into a best selling author on the the military's role in Argentine politics. Potash describes his experiences working with Nazi files as part of an investigating commission created by the Argentine government. Known for his expertise, Potash is frequently consulted in times of crisis by the Argentine media and his name has become a household word in that country. Potash also recalls his courtship and marriage and relationships with his two daughters. Readers have dubbed the manuscript "hard to put down."

"When Ralph Benmergui discovered he was literally hours away from a deadly heart attack he realized his life had changed. He was entering the autumn of his life, as he saw it, and he was being dragged into it by his heels. What follows this awakening is a funny, profound and generous look at where he has come from - from his childhood as the youngest son of Moroccan immigrants, to his experiences during the early years of YukYuks, to his long and storied career at CBC, along with much more - to where he is now, with stents in his arteries, having survived two bouts of cancer, hosting a much-loved podcast and a with practice in Hashpa'ah, Jewish Spiritual Direction. Along the way Benmergui looks critically at what it means to grow old in our society and challenges the reader to push against the stereotypes, to find a new purpose, and to claim the title and role of elder in a society that demands we strive to stay 'forever young.'"--

It begins with a child's hunger for love and acceptance and continues through years of withering criticism, perverse expectations, and unfounded competition from a narcissistic father who couldn't tolerate his son's happiness and libertine spirit. In the end, the author unravels a relationship that could never be fixed -- but perhaps didn't need to be.

Text: English, Russian (translation)

A documentary maker evaluates the significant changes that have occurred throughout Japanese society in the past four decades, describes his relationships with some of the nation's important figures, and recounts how his close ties shaped his career

Memoirs of a Jew (b. Faye Lazebnik) from Lenin, Poland (now Belarus), who survived the Nazi occupation in this region, on the Polish-Soviet border. On 14 August 1942 the ghetto of Lenin was liquidated by the Nazis; the author was spared as a "specialist" (a photographer). In September 1942 she joined Soviet partisans in the Molotov brigade and served there as a photographer, nurse, and soldier. Relates the experiences of Jewish fighters amongst the Soviet partisans. Antisemitism existed among some partisans, and sometimes it cost Jews their lives. In July 1944 the area in which she fought was liberated by Soviet troops. In 1945 she returned to Poland, and in 1948 emigrated to Canada.

Best known as General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a position he held for over 40 years, A. Alan Borovoy was at the centre of many of the most profound and difficult public debates of last half century. In At the Barricades, Borovoy reflects on the events that have shaped the Canadian political legal landscape from the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s to the “war on terrorism” in the 21st century. Along the way he provides a first-hand account of Québec’s FLQ crisis of 1970, the protests regarding the abortion controversy, the battles over free speech, hate speech, and pornography, and the struggles to protect the rights of Aboriginal peoples, the economically disadvantaged, and victims of police misconduct. This book recounts the life of an activist; always principled and compassionate, usually controversial, often very funny, and never dull. It should be read by anyone who is interested in how we got to where we are today and concerned about where we are going.

One afternoon in December 1992, Yuri Lotman sat down to dictate to his assistant. These sessions were spread out over that winter and into the spring of 1993—the final spring of Lotman's life. The result is this book of memories and recollections. Five sections concern a single anecdote or theme—lice on the front, an encounter with a hare, a "totally Bulgakovian" episode, a visit from the KGB, Tartu School politics. The remaining two sections supply the narrative backbone of the memoir, focusing on the passage of time: school and frontline life, the end of the war, and postwar university life. --