Tag archieven: Biografie

Biografie, Joden

Jewish Lives Biography Series

Jewish Lives Biography Series Books from Yale University Press. What books have appeared in the Jewish Lives series of biographies from Yale University Press? Which Jewish person is the biography about? Who is the author of the biography?

Jewish Lives Biography Series

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. Jewish Lives is a partnership of Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation.

Which new biography will appear in the Jewish Lives series in 2026?

The overview below shows the latest books in the Jewish Lives series. The newest biographies are at the top of the list. Links lead to detailed information about the biography, the author, and ordering options.

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan Biography reviewMordecai M. Kaplan

Restless Soul

  • Author: Jenna Weissman Joselit (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 32.50
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker, Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881–1983) was one of the leading Jewish personalities of twentieth-century America. Founder of the Reconstructionist movement, he was a maverick who reshaped religious faith and practice, generating controversy at every turn. Known for his relentless energy and imagination, Kaplan redefined Jewish identity, emphasizing reason over superstition, and intellectual discovery over passive inheritance. He introduced new rituals, reevaluated the role of tradition, and advocated for a Judaism that evolved with the times and fostered inclusive community…read on >

Daniel Okrent Stephen Sondheim biography reviewStephen Sondheim

Art Isn’t Easy

  • Author: Daniel Okrent (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 35.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for his iconic Broadway shows such as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents’ divorce, his acquaintance with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent discovery of musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer…read on >

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography reviewWalter Benjamin

The Pearl Diver

  • Author: Peter E. Gordon (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: February 24, 2026
  • Length: 224 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 28.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism—his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving—that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization…read on >

Overview of all biographies in the Jewish Lives series

The overview of all biographies in the Jewish Lives series is categorized by the name of the Jewish person described in the book.

  • Abraham: The First Jew, by Anthony Julius
  • Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud, by Barry W. Holtz
  • Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel, by Anita Shapira
  • Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam, by Steven Nadler
  • Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy, by James Traub
  • Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver, by Peter E. Gordon
  • Bernard Berenson: A Life in the Picture Trade, by Rachel Cohen
  • Irving Berlin: New York Genius, by James Kaplan
  • Sarah Bernardt: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, by Robert Gottlieb
  • Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician, by Allen Shawn
  • Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew, by Avner Holtzman
  • Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist, by Pierre Birnbaum
  • Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds, by Noga Arika
  • Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, by Jeffrey Rosen
  • Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew, by Jeremy Dauber
  • Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, by Paul Mendes-Flohr
  • Moshe Dayan: Israel’s Controversial Hero, by Mordechai Bar-On
  • David: The Divided Heart, by David Wolpe
  • Benjamin Disraeli: The Novel Politician, by David Cesarani
  • Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair, by Maurice Samuels
  • Albert Einstein: His Space and Times, by Steven Gimbel
  • Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, by Daniel C. Matt
  • Anne Frank: The Many Lives of Anne Frank, by Ruth Franklin
  • Sigmund Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, by Adam Phillips
  • Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, by Rachel Shteir
  • Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life, by Vivian Gornick
  • Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World, by Martin Goodman
  • Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One, by Mark Kurlansky
  • Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern, by Francine Prose
  • Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures, by Adina Hoffman
  • Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution, by George Prochnick
  • Lillian Hellman: An Imperious Life, by Dorothy Gallagher
  • Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader, by Derek Penslar
  • Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement, by Julian E. Zelizer
  • Houdini: The Elusive American, by Adam Begley
  • Jabotinsky: A Life, by Hillel Halkin
  • Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch, by Yair Zakovitch
  • Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt, by Saul Friedländer
  • Mordecai M. Kaplan: Restless Soul, by Jenna Weissman Joselit
  • Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, by Jane Eisner
  • Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution, by Yehudah Mirsky
  • Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker, by David Mikics
  • Stan Lee: A Life in Comics, by Liel Leibovitz
  • Primo Levi: The Matter of a Life, by Berel Lang
  • Maimonides: Faith in Reason, by Alberto Manguel
  • Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows, by Arthur Lubow
  • Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, by Lee Siegel
  • Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution, by Shlomo Avineri
  • Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation, by Kenneth Turan
  • Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch, by Deborah E. Lipstadt
  • Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity, by Shmuel Feiner
  • Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death, by Lillian Faderman
  • Arthur Miller: American Witness, by John Lahr
  • Moses: A Human Life, by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
  • Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, by Robert Alter
  • Marcel Proust: The Search, by Benjamin Taylor
  • Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman, by Itamar Rabinovich
  • Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, by Alexandra Popoff
  • Walther Rathenau: Weimar’s Fallen Statesman, by Shulamit Volkov
  • Sidney Reilly: Master Spy, by Benny Morris
  • Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power, by Marc Wortman
  • Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance, by Wendy Lesser
  • Julius Rosenwald: Repairing the World, by Hasia R. Diner
  • Philip Roth: Stung by Life, by Steven J. Zipperstein
  • Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel, by Annie Cohen-Solal
  • Ruth: A Migrants Tale, by Ilana Pardes
  • Menachem Mendel Schneerson: Becoming the Messiah, by Ezra Glinter
  • Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah, by David Biale
  • Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream, by Michael Shnayerson
  • Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom, by Steven Weitzman
  • Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn.t Easy, by Daniel Okrent
  • Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, by Molly Haskell
  • Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah, by Ian Buruma
  • Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters, by Phyllis Rose
  • Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power, by Neal Gabler
  • Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, by Francine Klagsbrun
  • Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life, by Joshua Rubenstein
  • Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio, by David Thomson
  • Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, by Joseph Berger
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes, by Anthony Gottlieb

Matching books

Biografie, Nieuw-Zeeland, Nieuw-Zeelandse schrijfster

Gerri Kimber – Katherine Mansfield biografie

Gerri Kimber Katherine Mansfield biografie review, recensie en informatie van het boek over de Nieuw-Zeelandse schrijfster. Op 1 november 2025 verschijnt bij Reaktion Books de biografie van Katherine Mansfield. Het boek is geschreven door Gerri Kimber. Een Nederlandse vertaling van de biografie is niet verkrijgbaar.

Gerri Kimber Katherine Mansfield biografie review en recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, recensie of review verschijnt van Katherine Mansfield, A Hidden Life, geschreven door Gerri Kimber, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Gerri Kimber Katherine Mansfield Biografie

Katherine Mansfield

A Hidden Life

  • Auteur: Gerri Kimber
  • Soort boek: biografie van Katherine Mansfield
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 november 2025
  • Omvang: 336 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek
  • Prijs: £ 20,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van de biografie van Katherine Mansfield de Nieuw-Zeelandse schrijfster

The life and work of Katherine Mansfield, one of literary modernism’s most significant writers.

This biography explores the life and work of Katherine Mansfield, one of literary modernism’s most significant writers. On the fringes of Bloomsbury, and friends with D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot and many others, Mansfield was at the heart of literary London at its most experimental. By the time of her death in 1923, aged just 34, she had broken boundaries and created new ways of writing that led her literary sparring partner Virginia Woolf to later admit that Mansfield’s ‘was the only writing I was ever jealous of’. Based on compelling new research, Gerri Kimber challenges previous conceptions surrounding the author’s life, uncovers friendships and relationships formerly barely acknowledged and offers innovative readings of Mansfield’s most celebrated stories.

Gerri Kimber is Visiting Professor in the Department of English at the University of Northampton. She was president of the Katherine Mansfield Society for ten years (2010–20) and has published extensively on Mansfield’s life and work.

Bijpassende boeken en informatie

Biografie, Sport, Sportbiografie, Wielrennen

Andy McGrath – Pogi

Andy McGrath Pogi recensie en informatie boek en portret met het openhartige verhaal van de Sloveense wielrenner Tadej Pogačar. Op 27 januari 2026 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Lannoo de Nederlandse vertaling van Tadej Pogacar: Unstoppable, geschreven door Andy McGrath, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Andy McGrath Pogi recensie

  • “Een immense kampioen, buitengewoon.” (Eddy Merckx)
  • “De man om te verslaan.” (Matthieu van der Poel)
  • “Hij is van een ander niveau, hij rijdt in een andere wereld.” (Geraint Thomas)

Andy McGrath Pogi

Pogi

Het openhartige verhaal van Tadej Pogačar

  • Auteur: Andy McGrath (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: portret, wielerboek
  • Origineel: Tadej Pogacar, Unstoppable (2025)
  • Uitgever: Lannoo
  • Verschijnt: 28 januari 2026
  • Omvang: 288 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: € 25,99 / € 14,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek over wielrenner Tadej Pogačar

De Sloveense wielerheld Tadej Pogačar – roepnaam Pogi – is een fenomeen. Met groot machtsvertoon, vaak op een Merckxiaanse manier, weet hij de meeste eendagswedstrijden of rondes waar hij aan de start verschijnt naar zijn hand te zetten. Zelfs zijn sterkste concurrenten hebben een begenadigde dag nodig om hem te kloppen. Op zijn palmares staan al drie Tourzeges, een Giro, drie Luik-Bastenaken-Luiks, een Ronde van Vlaanderen, een Amstel Gold Race, vier Rondes van Lombardije en een WK. En het ziet ernaar uit dat zijn erelijst in zijn topjaar 2025 nog flink aangedikt zal worden.

In zijn diepgravende en geautoriseerde biografie Pogi beschrijft Andy McGrath, die tal van gesprekken met Pogačar, zijn entourage en een aantal grote wielerkampioenen had, hoe Tadej uitgroeide tot de sterkste wielrenner van zijn generatie.

Zijn sympathieke en open karakter maakt hem bovendien ook tot een van de populairste renners van het peloton.

Andy McGrath is een freelance sportjournalist uit Londen. Hij is de voormalige hoofdredacteur van tijdschrift Rouleur en is hoofdverslaggever bij Cycling Weekly. Eerder schreef McGrath al spraakmakende en bekroonde biografieën over tragische wielerhelden als Tom Simpson en Frank Vandenbroucke.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Biografie, Slavernij

Angela F. Murphy – Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review, recensie en informatie boek over de koning van Underground Railroad. Op 28 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Black Lives de biografie van abolitionist Jermain Wesley Loguen. Het boek is geschreven door Angela F. Murphy. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review en recensie

  • “For too long, Loguen’s incredible activism, courage, and contributions to Black freedom have been understudied. For his life, we owe Loguen a great debt. For Angela Murphy’s painstaking scholarship, we owe deep gratitude.” (Kellie Carter Jackson)
  • “Angela F. Murphy, author of the definitive study of the ‘Jerry Rescue,’ has written a superb biography of a leader of that struggle, the Reverend Jermain Loguen, himself a fugitive slave from middle Tennessee.” (R.J.M. Blackett)
  • “Murphy shines a brilliant spotlight on a vital but underappreciated abolitionist. This is the definitive account of a defiant fugitive who sought, for himself and others, a land for the free and homes for the brave.” (W. Caleb McDaniel)

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Jermain Wesley Loguen

Defiant Fugitive

  • Auteur: Angela F. Murphy (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: biografie
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Black Lives
  • Verschijnt: 28 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 312 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 30,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de biografie van Jermain Wesley Loguen

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery to become an influential abolitionist, famously known as the King of the Underground Railroad.

Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most publicized Underground Railroad stations in the northern states. Loguen’s political commitments in the years before the Civil War were carried out at great personal risk, for he had liberated himself from slavery in Tennessee and was in constant danger of being captured and reenslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law. Defiantly, however, he refused to purchase his own freedom, an act that he believed would have legitimized the rights of slaveholders. In addition to aiding fellow fugitives from slavery, Loguen worked tirelessly to promote Black equality and uplift throughout upstate New York and Canada. After Emancipation, he extended his work to aid freedpeople in the South and to advocate for Black equality on a national scale.

In this engaging study, Angela F. Murphy follows Loguen from his early years through his transformation into one of the brightest stars in the constellation of abolitionists and reformers in New York.

Angela F. Murphy is a professor in the Department of History at Texas State University. She is the author of The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law, Northern Rights, and the American Sectional Crisis. She lives in Wimberley, Texas.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, portret

Alexandra Nagel – Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen

Alexandra Nagel Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen recensie en informatie biografie van de Joodse handlezer die bekend is geworden door de dagboeken van Etty Hillesum. Op 26 februari 2026 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Balans de biografie van Julius Spier, de Joodse handlezer, geschreven door Alexandra Nagel. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Alexandra Nagel Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen recensie

  • “Zeer geïnspireerd door zijn werk: het peilen van mijn diepste conflicten door het lezen van mijn tweede gezicht: de handen.” (Etty Hillesum)

Alexandra Nagel Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen

Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen

  • Auteur: Alexandra Nagel (Nederland)
  • Soort boek: biografie van de handlezer
  • Uitgever: Balans
  • Verschijnt: 26 februari 2026
  • Omvang: 256 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 23,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Boekenwereld / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van de biografie van handlezer Julius Spier geschreven door Alexandra Nagel

Veel mensen kennen de naam Julius Spier uit de dagboeken van de Joodse schrijfster Etty Hillesum. Spier (1887-1942) was een uit Berlijn gevluchte therapeut en handlezer. Begin 1941 analyseerde hij Hillesums handen, waarna zij achtereenvolgens zijn cliënt, leerling, secretaresse en geliefde werd.

Wie was deze man die op Etty en veel anderen zo’n aantrekkingskracht uitoefende? Spier is vanwege zijn handleeskunde (een pseudowetenschap) en therapeutisch grensoverschrijdend gedrag vaak neergezet als een vrouwenversierder en charlatan. In deze eerste biografie over Spier schetst Alexandra Nagel op basis van nieuwe bronnen een genuanceerder beeld. Spier was een complexe, getalenteerde Joodse vluchteling die in een gespannen tijdsgewricht probeerde een dubieus beroep gelegitimeerd te krijgen. Ook was deze leerling van Carl G. Jung een gepassioneerde geest, een groot muziekliefhebber en iemand die een vrouw aan zijn zijde nodig had.

Was de methode van handlezen die hij beoefende werkelijk onbetrouwbaar? Wie waren de andere vrouwen in zijn leven en hoe keken zij naar hem? Wat voor relatie had hij met Herta Levi, zijn ‘verre’ verloofde, over wie ook Hillesum schreef? En hoe verhield hij zich tot andere handlezers in zijn tijd, zowel in Duitsland als in Nederland?

Julius Spier en de kunst van het handlezen is zowel een boeiend tijdsbeeld, een portret van een bijzonder leven als een uiterst waardevolle toevoeging aan de literatuur rond Etty Hillesum.

Alexandra Nagel is geboren in 1961. Ze is historicus op het gebied van de westerse esoterie. In 2007, toen ze aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam afstudeerde, kwam Julius Spier op haar pad en schreef zij haar proefschrift over hem. Inmiddels heeft Nagel tientallen artikelen gepubliceerd over Spier en andere handlezers, Etty Hillesum en verschillende naasten uit hun omgeving die haar aandacht trokken.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Muziek, Popmuziek

Alexander Larman – Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie

Alexander Larman Lazarus The Second Coming of David Bowie review and information book about story of the second half of Bowie’s life. Pegasus Books will publish this David Bowie biography written by Alexander Larman, on February 24, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Alexander Larman Lazarus The Second Coming of David Bowie reviews

When a book review or commentary appears in the media of Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie, the book written by Alexander Larman, we will pay attention to it on this page.

Alexander Larman Lazarus The Second Coming of David Bowie

Lazarus

The Second Coming of David Bowie

  • Author: Alexander Larman (England)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Pegasus Books
  • To be released: 24 February 2026
  • Length: 384 pages
  • Format: hardback / ebook
  • Prize:
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the biography of David Bowie by Alexander Larman

The compelling story of the second half of Bowie’s life, exploring the untold story of these latter years when Bowie moved from commercial failure to his final masterpiece.

When David Bowie died on January 10th, 2016, aged sixty-nine, his death was greeted with the greatest display of public mourning since Princess Diana three decades before. Politicians and fellow musicians alike fell over themselves to pay tribute to the former Starman, and his home cities of New York and London saw thousands of well-wishers assemble to play his music and console each other in their hour of grief.

Twenty-five years before, Bowie appeared to be washed up. His 80s career had been a slow descent into self-parody, his attempts to diversify into hard rock with the new group Tin Machine had been disastrous, and the art-rock music with which he had made his name was badly out of fashion. The Thin White Duke needed a miracle if he was not only going to be able to assume his rightful place at the top of the rock music firmament, but even to continue his career. And a miracle—a resurrection from the dead—is precisely what happened.

Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie is the first biography of Bowie that tells the full and candid story of what happened in between those two apparently unbridgeable points. With new and exclusive interviews with the musicians, filmmakers, and cultural figures who worked with and befriended Bowie throughout this period, Lazarus is the definitive account of the previously overlooked and fascinating latter half of a great and distinguished career.

It climaxed with his final masterpiece, Blackstar, and the unprecedented—yet entirely appropriate—theatrical flourish of his departure from the stage on which he had thrived. And as it did so, Bowie passed from greatness into legend, and the world could only look on in admiration.

Alexander Larman is a historian and critic who writes for major journals like the Observer and The Telegraph in Britain and is currently books editor of The Spectator World. He has written on subjects as diverse as Oasis, Lord Byron, and the British royal family—but his real passion is David Bowie. He writes on Bowie whenever he can, and the articles always receive a huge amount of attention globally. Alex lives in England.

Matching books

Biografie, Duitse filosoof

Peter E. Gordon – Walter Benjamin biography

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography review and information book about the Jewish-German culture philosopher and writer. Yale University Press will publish the new book in the Jewish Lives series on Walter Benjamin, The Pearl Diver, February 24, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography review

  • “By reading Benjamin’s own texts against the grain of the hagiography that has come to surround him, Peter Gordon unwinds the myths, and in the most learned and informed fashion, gives us back the human being.” (Susan Buck-Morss, CUNY Graduate Center and Cornell University)

Peter E. Gordon Walter Benjamin biography

Walter Benjamin

The Pearl Diver

  • Author: Peter E. Gordon (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: February 24, 2026
  • Length: 224 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 28.00
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the Walter Benjamin biography

An accessible and authoritative biography of Walter Benjamin that guides the reader through the complexity of his intellectual legacy and the turbulence of his time.

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism—his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving—that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization.

Award-winning author Peter E. Gordon tells Benjamin’s story in a vivid and poetic style, inviting the reader to look beyond the image of Benjamin as a tragic figure of German-Jewish history and portraying him as a complex personality of unique and multifaceted gifts. Tracing Benjamin’s life from his Berlin childhood to his Parisian exile, through the romanticism of the youth movements and the conflicts over modernism and Marxism, Gordon brings Benjamin to life.

Peter E. Gordon teaches social theory and philosophy at Harvard University. His books include Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization and A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

Matching books

Biografie, Theater

Danny van Zuijlen – De ster van de revue

Danny van Zuijlen De ster van de revue recensie en informatie biografie en boek over revuester Louisette, Louisa Augusta van Geijtenbeek. Op 20 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Walburg Pers het boek over Louisette, de ster van de revue. De biografie is geschreven door Dany van Zuijlen. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Danny van Zuijlen De ster van de revue recensie

  • “Een theatervoorstelling is vluchtig: als de zaallichten weer aangaan is het al herinnering… Gelukkig hebben we tegenwoordig Spotify, om de herinnering aan Wim Sonneveld of Conny Stuart levend te houden. In de tijd van Louisette was dat er niet. Wat heerlijk dat er nu een boek is over haar leven en successen.” (Simone Kleinsma, zangeres en actrice)

Danny van Zuijlen De ster van de revue

De ster van de revue

Het wonderbaarlijke leven van Louisette (1882-1965)

  • Auteur: Danny van Zuijlen (Nederland)
  • Soort boek: biografie, theatergeschiedenis
  • Uitgever: Walburg Pers
  • Verschijnt: 20 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 176 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 24,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over revuester Louisette

Van bittere armoede in de Amsterdamse Nes naar Broadwayster: Louisa Augusta van Geijtenbeek, bekend onder de artiestennaam ‘Louisette’, leefde het onmogelijke. Werkzaam als huishoudster van een beroemde variétékomiek greep ze haar kans toen ze door hem werd ontdekt. Een glansrijke carrière volgde, met uitverkochte zalen in Carré tot een ontvangst als vorstin in Nederlands-Indië en een spectaculaire tour door Amerika.

In een tijd waarin vrouwen weinig mochten, durfde Louisette alles. In de jaren ’30 groeide ze met grote, zelfgeproduceerde shows uit tot de Nederlandse Mistinguett. Tot in de Tweede Wereldoorlog het noodlot toesloeg. In de jaren daarna verloor Louisette haar glans en veranderde ze van een ster in een paranoïde oude vrouw.

Theatermaker Danny van Zuijlen ontrafelt het ontroerende en gelaagde portret van een vrouw die leefde tussen schijnwerpers en schaduwen – een leven vol ambitie, opoffering, liefde en eenzaamheid. De ster van de revue mag dan vergeten zijn, haar verhaal verdient opnieuw applaus.

Danny van Zuijlen is theatermaker, producent en verhalenjager. In 2010 produceerde hij zijn eerste theatervoorstelling ‘Zing nog eens, Louisette!’ Sinds enkele jaren vervlecht hij historische verhalen met digitale technologie in producties ‘Op klompen door de dessa’ en ‘Schokland – Geen weg terug’.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Filosofie, Filosoof

Anthony Gottlieb – Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie recensie, review en informatie over de inhoud van het boek over de filosoof. Op 21 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Jewish Lives de biografie van de Oostenrijks-Britse filosoof Ludwig Wittgenstein. Het boek is geschreven door Anthony Gottlieb . Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie recensie en review

  • “With philosophical sophistication and writerly grace, Anthony Gottlieb crafts a narrative rich with historical and intellectual detail and subtlety. But though the vistas can be broad, the result is an intimate portrait of a thinker who redefined the boundaries of philosophy.” (Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York University)
  • “The outline of Wittgenstein’s life is well known. But he remains enigmatic, and in this book Anthony Gottlieb casts valuable new light on the role of his family, and of his wider intellectual and musical environment, in fashioning the strange and contradictory genius he became.” (Simon Blackburn)

Anthony Gottlieb Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes

  • Auteur: Anthony Gottlieb (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: biografie van de Oostenrijks-Britse filosoof
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Jewish Lives
  • Verschijnt: 21 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 232 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 28,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de Ludwig Wittgenstein biografie van Anthony Gottlieb

The first biography in more than three decades of the Austrian-born thinker Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

According to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), philosophy is a “battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.” This audacious idea changed the way many of its practitioners saw their subject. In the first biography of Wittgenstein in more than three decades, Anthony Gottlieb evaluates this revolutionary idea, explaining the evolution of Wittgenstein’s thought and his place in the history of philosophy.

Wittgenstein was born into an immensely rich Viennese family but yearned to live a simple life, and he gave away his inheritance. After studying with Bertrand Russell in Cambridge, he wrote his famous Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus while serving in World War I. He then took several positions as a primary-school teacher in rural Austria before returning as a fellow to Cambridge, where a cultlike following developed around him. Wittgenstein worked not only as a philosopher and schoolteacher, but also as an aeronautical engineer in Manchester and as an architect in Vienna.

Gottlieb’s meticulously researched book traces the itinerant and troubled life of Wittgenstein, the development of his influential ideas, and the Viennese intellectual milieu and family background that shaped him.

Anthony Gottlieb is born in 1956. He is an author, book critic, and former executive editor of The Economist. He is the author of The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance and The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Joden

Jenna Weissman Joselit – Mordecai M. Kaplan biography

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan biography review and information book about the rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker.Yale University Press will publish the new book in the Jewish Lives series on Mordecai M. Kaplan, Restless Soul, March 17, 2026. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan biography review

  • “To capture Mordecai Kaplan’s long and astonishingly productive life takes skill and discernment and a deep understanding of American Jewish life. All these qualities are on display is Joselit’s wonderful volume. She has done justice to a remarkable man.” (Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart)

Jenna Weissman Joselit Mordecai M. Kaplan Biography

Mordecai M. Kaplan

Restless Soul

  • Author: Jenna Weissman Joselit (United States)
  • Book type: biography
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Series: Jewish Lives
  • Released: March 17, 2026
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook
  • Prize: $ 32.50
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the Mardecai M. Kaplan biography

An engaging biography that goes behind the myths to reveal the complex life of a transformative figure in modern American Judaism.

Rabbi, writer, teacher, and thinker, Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881–1983) was one of the leading Jewish personalities of twentieth-century America. Founder of the Reconstructionist movement, he was a maverick who reshaped religious faith and practice, generating controversy at every turn. Known for his relentless energy and imagination, Kaplan redefined Jewish identity, emphasizing reason over superstition, and intellectual discovery over passive inheritance. He introduced new rituals, reevaluated the role of tradition, and advocated for a Judaism that evolved with the times and fostered inclusive community.

Drawn extensively from Kaplan’s private diaries and correspondence with family and close friends, Jenna Weissman Joselit’s intimate portrait of this influential and iconoclastic thinker sheds new light on the meaning of American Judaism, identity, the limits of belonging, and the role of faith in modern society.

Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and professor of history at the George Washington University. The author, most recently, of Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments, she lives in New York.

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