Diana Cooper-Clark has written a book that uncovers a ‘hidden’ history in the Holocaust narrative. The stories of seventeen Holocaust survivors who escaped to Jamaica and who are among the last eyewitnesses to the Shoah are inspiring. As well, she reveals the involvement of Jamaican Jews with the refugees and the Holocaust, and the virtually unknown story of the killing of Caribbean Jews in Nazi concentration camps. In addition, Dreams of Re-Creation in Jamaica has dozens of never before published photographs shared by the Jewish refugees. This book also sheds light on the Sephardim and their marginalization in the history of Hitler’s extermination policies. These compelling tales bring together World War II, Jewish refugees and Jamaican Jews, stories that have previously slipped through the cracks of history. As a child of six years old in Jamaica, Cooper-Clark read a book about the Nazi, Karl Eichmann, thus changing her life. She swore to spend the rest of her life bearing witness to the Holocaust. For everyone inspired by survival stories, and the triumph of life over death for both individuals and communities, this book is a must-read.

Occasionally one comes across a book, which is unexpected, delights and inspires. Surinam, known as the 'Jewish Savannah', where a vibrant Jewish community was granted full and equal rights two hundred years before the Jews of other communities in the region. St Eustatius, where the economically successful Jewish community was plundered during the British occupation in 1781. Curacao, named the 'Mother of Jewish communities in the New World', where a prosperous Jewish community comprised nearly half of Curacao's non-slave population and was the center of Jewish life in the region. For all their economic and local political power, the Jews were little more than pawns in the 200-year struggle for control of the Caribbean by Holland, Great Britain, France and Spain. Eventually growing tired of this chess game, the Jews of the Caribbean drifted into assimilation or immigrated to the United States, where life was more secure. An ideal resource and captivating read for those traveling to the region or people with an interest in Jewish history, this is an exceptional book that brings the Jewish communities of the Caribbean to life, with intensity, and with a heartbeat so strong as to secure their proper and rightful place in recorded Jewish history.

A comprehensive account of the Jewish population of Jamaica and its role in the economic and cultural life of the country. Beginning in the 16th century, the author chronicles the Jews' fight for civil rights and freedoms and the ways in which they played a key role in international commerce.

"Custer came to me and said: 'Porter, there is a large camp of Indians ahead, and we are going to have a great killing.'" The words of army contract surgeon Henry R. Porter are chilling today in their matter-of-fact reference to the battle to come--a battle of which Porter would be one of the few white survivors. Drawing on his writings, this biography tells the story of Porter's transformation from young easterner to ambitious frontier settler and medical practicioner in mid-19th century America. In its details of frontier life, of the infamous Battle of Little Bighorn, and of Porter's later travels around the world (which ended with his death in Agra, India), the reader finds richness that brings history vividly to life. Appendices contain a list of items from the North Dakota Historical Society's Henry R. Porter collection and a detailed Porter lineage.

If you have ever spent part of your life on the shores of Lake Mendota--whether student or staff, whether personally or vicariously as a parent, whether then or now--you will immediately recognize The University of Wisconsin: A Pictorial History as a celebration of that time and memory, of that community. It is part of your family tree. In eight lively, readable chapters Arthur Hove tells us the story of a tiny pre-Civil War land grant college that grew into the modern "multiversity" we know today (which, by itself, would be the sixth largest "city" in the state). But the text, engaging as it is, is really the frame for the book's most impressive feature--the exquisite album of nearly 400 photographs, thirty-two pages of them in full color, that capture the timeless moments and faces, the unforgettable characters and controversies, the high points (and the hijinks!) of 130 years of Badger lore. The words and images tell countless stories: of Bascom Hall, which was originally domed. After a mysterious fire destroyed the dome in 1916 it was simply never restored. of the famous "sifting and winnowing" plaque. The regents of the time didn't care for it much--academic "freedom" was a radical idea. It gathered dust in a basement for years before it was finally mounted in 1915. of Pat O'Dea, who made a sixty-three-yard drop kick against Northwestern in 1899. Lost and presumed dead in World War I, he was "discovered" in 1934 living under an assumed name in California. of Harry Steenbock, who was offered $900,000 (in 1925!) for commercial rights to his food irradiation process that eliminated rickets in children. Instead, he helped set up the WARF foundation to fund research from his patent proceeds.

Think global, act local! Trades councils are the place workers and unemployed trade unionists, in local and national forums, can come together to pass resolutions and plan actions; in workplaces and on the streets; to change laws, change minds, show solidarity, lead and inspire; encourage demonstrations, occupations and industrial actions; to provide confidence and political tools to working people. Union leaders have tended to constrict these assemblies while radicals have often wanted to further empower them. Trades councils’ histories have often been marginalised, hidden from the very localities from which they sprang – until now. Come Together explores trades councils in Britain from 1920 to 1950 – their role in the General Strike of 1926, unemployment responses in the 1930s, the impact of World War II, their interactions with British communists – with lessons for today’s activists.