mmigrant rights marches were fewer and less populous this year. Nonetheless, many dark-haired, olive-skinned (and lighter) people in white T-shirts, some of them carrying Mexican flags, came out into the streets to make America’s immigrants visible. And for that, as an immigrant, I am grateful.

For many of those people, America was the place to survive — and thrive. America for them was and is a place where life can be easier, where jobs are available, and kin communities offer a sense of belonging. America for them was real, and when they came here it was a physical act, mostly, a journey, frequently on foot or on a set of wheels, with ground under your feet. In a sense, they never left.

Consider the invisibles. Graduate students, visiting scholars, foreign-born professors, wives, artists, asylum seekers. The white, non-working-class immigrants. The ones for whom America was a word in the news, a source of political and intellectual discourse, the place whence ideas came — not a land to walk on, a set of streets to navigate, a supermarket shelf to take products from. They are here through the force of life circumstances, as an afterthought almost — America came with a marriage or a career move, a record deal or a research fellowship. What about us?

Continue reading “The invisible immigrant”

Holocaust Girls by S.L. Wisenberg “Wisenberg demonstrates an acute awareness of the absurdities of collective histories as well as individual human lives. . . . The beauty of these essays lies both in their taut, fraught language and the understated punchlines that purposefully upset the balance towards which the author has so artfully striven.”—Lilith Continue reading Praise for Holocaust Girls

Houses of Study by Ilana M. Blumberg “Houses of Study is a love affair with books. . . . For Blumberg, the pleasure of knowledge is always meant to be shared. . . . Her prose soars to a breathless lyricism when she enacts for us the pleasure and perils of conquering an uncharted page of Gemara. . . This book is a union of letters no less magnetic; to enter Ilana Blumberg’s houses of study is, invariably, to become ignited.”—Lilith Read more praise for House of Study Continue reading More Praise for Houses of Study

Elizabeth M. Campbell, Georg von Trapp’s granddaughter and translator of his memoir To the Last Salute, reads an excerpt of the memoir.  Enjoy. Continue reading Podcast: To the Last Salute

Because a Fire Was in My Head by Lynn Stegner “With bracing prose, Stegner turns a potential monster into a character both fascinating and pitiable; you may hate Kate, but you won’t want to leave her.” —Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly Read more on Because a Fire Was in My Head Continue reading More Praise for Because a Fire Was in My Head

The Origins of the Final Solution by Christopher Browning “The most sophisticated recent studies of the Holocaust itself—Christopher Browning’s masterpiece The Origins of the Final Solution; and the just-published The Years of Extermination—inextricably fix the German war on the Eastern Front to the center of their story.”—Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic Continue reading Praise for The Origins of the Final Solution

Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman by Lee Lowenfish “[A] solid . . . biography of the complicated man who brought Robinson into organized baseball.” —Daniel Okrent, Fortune Read more praise for Branch Rickey. Continue reading More Praise for Branch Rickey

The Cowboy Girl by John Clayton “Clayton not only offers a thorough assessment of the life of a fascinating and underrated woman novelist but also delves deeply into the appeal of the American West. . . . It is puzzling that Lockhart is not well known. . . . [S]he is the sort of American literary figure who would seem to invite any number of scholarly and popular studies. Luckily for her, Clayton knew a good story when he found it and has given Lockhart the absorbing biographical treatment her remarkable life deserves.”—Booklist “In The Cowboy Girl, author and essayist … Continue reading Praise for The Cowboy Girl