It’s the close of another work week and you know what that means. It’s time for another TWIH posting. Today’s TWIH features a myriad of subjects—from contemporary art and poetry to terrorism and the Holocaust. Without further ado, let’s look back at . . .

This Week in History

January 20, 1942: At a conference in Berlin, Nazi officials agreed upon a "final solution"—the systematic extermination of all the Jews in Europe.
For an up-close-and-personal take on what it was like to live in Germany during the Nazi era, pick up a copy of Mimi Schwartz’s Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father’s German Village. In its pages, Schwartz charts her journey through the village her father grew up in to determine how descent people coped during such indecent times.

January 21, 1940: Golfer Jack Nicklaus was born.
If you think there’s no poetry in this sport on the green, give Andy Brumer’s The Poetics of Golf a try. He’ll have you comparing Tiger Woods’ swing to Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in no time.

January 22, 1788: English poet Lord George Gordan Byron was born.
The poetically-inclined will want to take a gander at UNP’s selection of fine verse. Click here for a full list. Of particular interest is Valentines by Ted Kooser, former U.S. poet laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. This collection of Kooser’s valentines, sent to his female family members, friends, and acquaintances since 1986, is sure to delight anyone with a heart.

January 23, 1989: Famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali died in home country of Spain at age 84.
To view the stunning work of an inspired contemporary painter, grab a copy of Nomad by Enrique Martínez Celaya, whose work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

January 24, 1862: American novelist Edith Wharton was born.
Wharton was a close companion of author Henry James, whose complete collection of correspondence has been compiled in The Complete Letters of Henry James, available in a series of volumes from the University of Nebraska Press.

January 25, 1981: The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days returned to the U.S.
These hostages undoubtedly suffered terrible psychological stress from their time in Iran. To read a wealth of information on the psychological effects of terrorism, check out Brian Trappler’s Modern Terrorism and Psychological Trauma.

Join us again on Monday for new reviews of UNP titles. Have a great weekend, bloggers.