About A Short History of Lithuania to 1569: Centennial Edition (1921–2021) By Josef A. Katzel
Why did Lithuania’s dictator in the 1920s (the pro-Nazi Augustinas Voldemaras) kick the author out of the country for writing this seemingly harmless book? What was the significance of the fact that the author’s father tutored a teenage Lenin while both were in law school in Russia in the 1880s? And how was this ground-breaking equivalent of “Lithuanian History for Dummies” a century ahead of its time?
This centennial edition of a ground-breaking classic, translated from the original Russian into smooth and idiomatic English, with numerous images that bring the story to life, includes an introduction written by the author’s grandson—a Harvard graduate and PhD in political science—in which he describes the detective work through which he solved various mysteries relating to the book. He also describes three interesting parallels that were impressed upon him, including the striking similarities between the dictator Voldemaras and the present-day American authoritarian politician Donald J. Trump.
In a sense, this book represents a case study in the power of the written word and the repercussions that its exercise can generate. It is also a story of an oppressed minority people struggling mightily to break free from centuries of vicious prejudice. One hundred years later, at a time of heightened assault on both truth and freedom of speech worldwide—with authoritarianism steadily on the rise—these themes remain as timely as ever.
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