Adventures in Russian Historical Research--Reminiscences of American Scholars from the Cold War to the Present (review)

Abstract

[of Judaism as documented] . . . in its books and libraries, was in German [i.e., non-Jewish] hands[,] . . . serving as archaic documents of a lost culture” (86). In subsequent chapters the author links other politically motivated efforts to destroy books and libraries elsewhere in the world in support of broader attempts at genocide or ethnocide. Her second chapter documents in considerable detail efforts to use libricide as a prime weapon in the struggle for the political domination of greater Serbia. Subsequent chapters then report seriatim on more recent libricidal activities still ongoing in the Middle East. The author then proceeds to Mao’s Revolution in China (an account that seems to this reviewer to be chronologically misplaced) as well as to other subsequent struggles in war-torn Tibet and Laos. Although this is not a pleasant book to read, Knuth is a careful scholar and an engaging writer. Of the three recent books on this same general theme read by this reviewer, hers is easily the most thorough and compelling. It is comprehensively researched, fully documented, and well annotated.